In this issue, BRICS Business Magazine presents BRICS+ Impact & Connectivity, a new international initiative co-initiated by Akashdeep Singh, President of the Indian Business Council in Russia, whose first full cycle is planned for 2027.
It will focus on companies and projects from BRICS and the wider BRICS+ world that do more than grow, export or enter new markets. The focus will be on those that create measurable public, economic, technological, cultural or infrastructural value while making countries, markets, cities, institutions and professional communities more connected.
BRICS+ Impact & Connectivity will bring together two formats: the BRICS+ Impact & Connectivity Award and the BRICS+ Impact & Connectivity Conference. Their common purpose is to identify projects that are already building practical links across the BRICS+ world.

In an era of radical technological transformation, climate change, growing competition for water, food, energy, and critically important minerals, plus, most importantly, under the conditions of the Second Demographic Transition, when too few people are being born in the world and the living are aging rapidly, human capital is emerging as the most important strategic resource.

The world’s heavy industry is gradually becoming less physical and more digital. Robotization, automation, remote control, and AI are reducing the importance of manual work while increasing the value of engineering, analytical, and digital competencies. This creates a historic opportunity for women to enter industries where their presence has remained minimal for decades. True, this is only possible under conditions of gender-equal access to STEM education, retraining, and new technological professions. Otherwise, automation might reproduce rather than reduce the old inequality in a digital format. To promote women, among other purposes, the Women in Modern Industry association was founded by Russian heavy industry leaders Nornickel, Atlas Mining, and Sibur. Daria Kryachkova, member of the association’s board and Vice President for HR Policy at Nornickel, is convinced that women constitute a personnel reserve for industry.

Founded in 2020, the Women in Modern Industries Association today makes an important contribution to developing human capital: it inspires, motivates, and supports women working in heavy industry, helps them develop, master new professions and competencies, and teaches businesses to notice their talents and give them due credit. The Association’s flagship project is the Talented Woman in Modern Industry award. Since its inception six years ago, this award has transformed from an industry-specific initiative into a prominent institution supporting leadership by women. In 2025, the project reached a new level, inviting participants from the BRICS countries and the Global South.

Twenty-five years ago, on 15 June 2001, the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan founded the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It was conceived as a practical mechanism for overcoming the legacy of the past: mistrust, border contradictions, and dividing lines. Even so, over the quarter-century since its inception, the SCO has expanded its agenda significantly. From confidence-building measures in the security sphere, the organization consistently transitioned to developing economic cooperation, transport connectivity, humanitarian exchanges, and institutional mechanisms meeting the Eurasian states’ new demands. Today, the SCO reflects a major trend of the modern world: the shift from a model of competing blocs to a system of multi-level partnerships.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which today embraces ten countries, unites a vast territory: about 36 million square kilometres or roughly a quarter of the Earth’s landmass. This is a continuous Eurasian space, and physical connectivity is essential for its economic integration. One key player here is the FESCO Transport Group, which is part of the management structure of the Rosatom state corporation. We take a look at the role of logistics in the economic collaboration between the SCO countries through the lens of the activities of one of Russia’s biggest logistics companies.

Having made the transition several years ago from episodic presence of a systematic reorientation in BRICS countries toward these markets, Russian business is today moving to a new level: it is increasingly thinking not in terms of exports and imports but of investments. Such deepening presence in BRICS countries requires a broader range of strategic objectives to be addressed, from finding partners and gaining access to technologies to raising capital, acquiring assets, and creating international business structures. At the same time, the choice of a new jurisdiction turns out to be a matter not only of commercial potential but also of the company’s long-term development strategy. Oxana Balayan, Founder and Managing Partner of BALAYAN GROUP, explains what needs to be taken into account when considering investment expansion onto BRICS markets.