Brics? What do you mean 'Brics'?

I recently talked about the Brics helping the EU in its financial crisis. Now let's take a closer look on what exactly is Brics, where it comes from and on what lies its legitimacy.

South Africa is now part of the former 'Bric'.

The term was created by journalist Jim O'Neill as an opposition to the G7 developped countries.
These five nations are considered to be the most powerfull developping countries. They are respectively the ninth, sixth, fourth, second and twenty-fifth economical dominant countries on the planet. They represent 40% of the world population and IMF assumed they will bring 61% of the global growth in 2015. Beside, Goldman Sachs even says that the economic potential of the Brics is such that they could become among the most dominant economies by 2050.

Lula (Brazil), Medvedev (Russia), Hu Jintao (China) and Pratibha Patil (India)
in Yekaterinburg for their first summit in 2009.

Even if the Brics are not seen to organize themselves into an economic bloc or a political organisation such as the European Union, they still remain economical and political partner, all members of an alliance. The first summit of what was then 'Bric' held on 16th June 2009 in Yekaterinburg (see picture above). Since they met every year, in Brasilia in 2010 and Sanya in 2011.