Two days from now leaders of the five most powerful emerging market economies will gather in Russia to discuss and debate the global economic landscape and increased cooperation between the member countries. The annual BRICS summit will bring together leaders of different hues, ideologies and contrasting domestic, political and economic structures. India, Brazil and South Africa are democracies. China is anything but democratic and its leader is a communist strongman who brooks no dissent. Vladimir Putin ’s leadership style is Stalinesque though crony capitalist oligarchs play a bigger role in the Russian economy today than they did in the Soviet era.The sharp contrasts don’t just end there. The economies too, differ widely in basic structure and in performance. South Africa lags behind every country badly. Russia’s economy has got clobbered by the oil and commodity price downslide and sanctions over Ukraine though its surging stock market would make investors think otherwise. Brazil’s GDP will probably be overtaken by India some time this year or next, while China is the 800 pound gorilla that commands respect, fear and awe in equal measure.Last year, investor perceptions about BRICS underwent a dramatic change. Foreign money poured into India and later China as prospects of economic growth brightened, and a commodity price slump and the Ukraine crisis made investors flee Brazil and Russia. China was the world’s best performer in dollar terms with a 33-34 per cent rise, followed by India with a 31 per cent gain.The picture has changed this year. Indian markets have underperformed, while Brazil and Russia have galloped ahead. China’s market has lurched from crisis to crisis and continuous stimulus measures from the central bank don’t seem to be having the desired effect.The question that Indian investors should ask now is whether India should be clubbed along with struggling economies like Russia and South Africa in an artificial monker meant purely for marketing purposes. Most foreign investors don’t seem to think so and there are two arguments for this. One, India’s growth potential, the diversified nature of its economy and its structure, and the democratic nature of its polity means that it has to be judged on different parameters and merits. Second, many of the basic issues and needs that are taken for granted in other emerging countries are still yet to be fulfilled in India given its huge population size and the widespread disparities and income inequality.Credit Suisse’s Neelkanth Mishra pointed this in an interview with ET last year when he said that the whole framework regarding emerging markets and BRICS needs to be destroyed. "If you compare India's per capita GDP on PPP adjusted basis to other emerging markets, Mexico was at India's level in 1976, Brazil and Turkey were at India’s level in 1983. South Africa was at India’s level in early 1990s. I mean how can the problems of Mexico be the same problems in India."​What Mishra is saying is that India’s economic situation is not comparable to that of other emerging market economies. Other countries, given the size of population and the early start they made in kick-starting growth, have forged ahead. That India’s economic situation and prospects need a new framework for better analysis goes without saying.There is also another reason for thinking beyond BRICS. India’s growth opportunities and the robustness of its private sector would place it in a league different from that of Russia or South Africa. It is not an economy dependant on the commodity global super cycle. Its entrepreneurs have forged ahead in different industries building businesses of lasting value. Its strong services sector, consumption growth, demographics and engineering and technological prowess gives it an edge over its BRICS peers. Morgan Stanley recently did a study and found that business models of Indian private sector companies are among the best in the world. Chris Wood of CLSA recently reiterated his overweight stance on India despite widespread investor concerns over economic growth and reforms.Demographics alone is enough to extend the gulf with other smaller emerging market nations and push India into a completely different direction. Brazil may be a $2.4-trillion economy but its population is only as large as Uttar Pradesh. Tamil Nadu has as big a population as Turkey. Of course, a big population brings with it a lot of headaches. The Modi government ’s appeal will rest on its ability to meet these challenges and investors will be far more interested in the government’s response. BRICS, for investors, is just a sideshow.