Blame Dominic Wilson and Roopa Purushothaman for introducing ‘Brics’ into the business lexicon. In a paper published two years ago, the Goldman Sachs economists forecast that Brazil, Russia, India and China would be four of the world’s six largest economies by the middle of this century. Thus Brics joined non-places such as Emea, Asean and Nafta in the acronym-crazed geography of international management.

Needless to say, most multinationals were already operating in one or more of the Brics countries. China’s status as the world’s low-cost workshop was hardly news. India’s software engineers and call-centre operators were already famous for delivering remarkable bang for the buck. What captured attention was the notion that Brics could soon be generating more economic growth than the western economies plus Japan combined.