Making a strong case for economic cooperation among the BRICS nations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today “we need to see our strengths and then cooperate on skill development”.

 “We must strengthen BRICS business council with the leading nations around the world,” Modi said at the BRICS business council meeting in the Russian city of Ufa where the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are holding a two-day summit.

The PM also highlighted the need of BRICS for the development of countries. He further said that BRICS Summit has had economic development as its vision. "Collectively, we have an 18 percent share in world trade," he added.

The theme of this summit is ' BRICS partnership: A powerful factor for Global Development', which covers both political and economic issues. However, the emphasis is on economic cooperation.

The Prime Minister will also be participating in the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The SCO summit is likely to see India, which is currently an observer of the grouping, acquire full membership.

On the sidelines of the summit, Modi met Chinese president Xi Jinping, for the fourth time in the last one year. It is the fourth bilateral meeting between the two leaders since their first in Fortaleza, Brazil, last July. In September 2014 and May 2015, Xi and Modi visited each others country, respectively.

The Chinese president recalled his meeting with Modi in May in the Chinese city of Xi'an, where the two leaders reached important consensus on enriching the bilateral strategic partnership and forging a closer development partnership.

The agreements reached back then are now being translated into steady progress in bilateral cooperation in such areas as parliamentary exchange, railway, industrial parks and smart cities, Xi said.

The president called on the two countries to make concerted efforts to maintain the positive momentum in the development of bilateral ties and open new prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation.

India in ‘stable growth momentum’: OECD

India gets ‘stable growth momentum’ tag in economic activities by Paris-based think tank OECD, The stable tag is based on Composite leading indicators (CLIs), designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) today said the indicators continue to point to firming growth in the euro area, including France and Italy, and to stable growth momentum in Germany, Japan and India.

India's CLI stood at 99.5 in May and the grouping's latest report is based on readings for that month. Last month, OECD - a grouping of 34 countries - had pegged India's growth to remain "strong and stable" at 7.3 per cent in 2015 on the back of revival in investments.