With reference to a grouping of countries known as BRICS, consider the following statements: (1). The First Summit of BRICS was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2009. (2). South Africa was the last to join the BRICS grouping. Which of the statements given above is / are correct?

Only statement 2 is correct, so the answer is B. The grouping began as BRIC, and its first summit was held at Yekaterinburg, Russia, in June 2009. Rio de Janeiro hosted the sixth summit in 2014, which is why the 2009 date is a tempting trap.

• Statement 1 is wrong. The first summit was at Yekaterinburg, not Rio. Brazil hosted the 2014 summit in Fortaleza and Brasilia, and the 2014 summit was the one held in Fortaleza, not Rio.
• Statement 2 is right (as of 2014). South Africa was invited at the Sanya summit in 2011 and became the "S" in BRICS, making it the last entrant at that time.

The core concept is the evolution of informal groupings in multipolar diplomacy. For Mains GS-2 (India's foreign policy) and GS-1, note how BRICS moved from an investment-thesis idea to a development bank (NDB, 2014) and a contingent reserve arrangement.

Current update: BRICS expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE, and Indonesia joined in 2025. So South Africa is no longer the last to join, and a question framed in the present tense would make statement 2 false.

Trap: candidates who remember Rio as the 2014 summit or assume the first summit was in Brazil often pick statement 1, so check the year and venue together.