The article addresses the puzzle of how the BRICS members were able to overcome institutional constraints and establish the New Development Bank (NDB) in a short period after its conception. It argues that the club dynamics among the members help them circumvent internal conflicts due to the embedded mutual common interest in status attribution. The dynamics also create an informal institutional platform for them to manoeuvre through intra-BRICS competitive interests by taking a symbolic stake in the NDB's development. Club diplomacy downplays contentious issues while elevating and reinforcing issues of common interest. Such an approach is tested, however, when the focus shifts from externalized demands to collective action. Calls for reforming the global system notably through a more equitable distribution of voice and influence in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank further consolidated the club-like culture among the BRICS members. At the same time, the push for a bold initiative of their own, such as the establishment of a development bank with the promise of massive infrastructure investment targeted at other countries in the global South, demonstrated the symbolic need to move beyond the status quo.

This paper examines China and India's relationship within the ambit of the G20 process and the autonomous BRICS institutional architecture. The evolving relationship of each of these two emerging powers within these different institutional settings demonstrates a degree of agentic commonality and distinction. China's and India's approaches to both the G20 and the BRICS summit processes highlight a combination of status-seeking and hedging behaviour. While China's cautious approach is complemented by assertive leadership in matters of national interest, India's leadership has a very specific orientation towards developmental issues. Whereas China's approach focuses on the United States and the rest of the West, India's approach is increasingly positioned as a response to China.

In this article, we have studied the combined effects of Newtonian and Joule heating in two-dimensional flow of Williamson fluid over the stretching surface. Mathematical analysis is presented in the presence of viscous dissipation. The governing partial differential equations are reduced into the ordinary differential equations by appropriate transformations. Both series and numerical solutions are constructed. Graphical results for the velocity and temperature fields are displayed and discussed for various sundry parameters. Numerical values of local skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are tabulated and analyzed.

The staging of the Fifth BRICS summit on 26–27 March 2013 consolidated the impression of nuanced club dynamics. Despite considerable differences in strategic perspectives, the BRICS members have been successful in amplifying converging interests while avoiding friction from disagreement by downplaying issues on which there is geopolitical divergence and policy competition. Their ‘agency’ of cooperation within BRICS is founded on an informal and loose operational style, which has facilitated organizational maintenance. The approach of accenting institutional flexibility is demonstrated by content analysis of BRICS declarations, interviews and media releases, which reveal how the membership of this forum have given greater attention to areas in which they share common interests, and made progress working towards them, while refraining from addressing issues in which there are serious underlying tensions.

IntroduçãoOs países BRICS realizaram um progresso significativo para consolidar as conexões institucionais entre os membros do grupo através da criação do Novo Banco de Desenvolvimento (NBD) dos BRICS. Dado que esta iniciativa foi primeiramente trazida à tona pela Índia, no contexto da Cúpula dos BRICS em Nova Délhi em 2011, havia ceticismo a respeito da capacidade dos Estados-membros dos BRICS entregarem a proposta, não somente devido a suas diferenças mais amplas nos interesses estratégicos, mas também por