 |
MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Melbourne-based businessman Dushyant Khanna has returned from New Delhi after co-chairing iBRICS 2026. The sovereign investment and deal summit ran parallel to the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit, chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Convened by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI) at The Oberoi on 12–13 September, the two-day summit connected US$1 trillion of sovereign and institutional capital with infrastructure, energy, critical minerals, and digital projects across 21 BRICS member and partner nations. Over 500 institutional investors, finance ministers, and business leaders attended the event.
Unifying sovereign capital across the Global South: Lakshmi Narayanan, Chairman of SWFI and Lead Co-Chair of iBRICS 2026 (right), along with Dushyant Khanna, Co-Chair of iBRICS (left) in New Delhi ahead of the founding iBRICS Summit.
On the first evening, Mr Khanna hosted the BRICS Boardroom, an exclusive closed dinner for investors and ministers. Guests over the summit included Naveen Jindal, Chairman of Jindal Steel & Power, and Meenakshi Lekhi, former Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture.
The second day featured pre-matched deal tables and roundtables focusing on energy security, logistics, sovereign computing, and artificial intelligence. The event concluded with the signing of the iBRICS DART Charter, a framework designed to link central bank digital currencies, private digital assets, and fast-payment networks such as India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix.
Dushyant Khanna, Co-Chair, iBRICS 2026, said: “With my roots in India and my career built in Australia, I have always seen how much capital sits on one side of the Indian Ocean and how many good projects sit on the other. New Delhi put the two in the same room. My job was to see that conversations became introductions, and introductions became term sheets.”
Lakshmi Narayanan Ramanujam, Chairman of SWFI and Lead Co-Chair of iBRICS 2026, said: “Dushyant brought a dealmaker’s discipline to iBRICS. Several of the conversations that began at his table in the Boardroom are still going, and Australia can be proud of the part he played.”
While Australia is not a BRICS member, Australian superannuation funds, miners, and infrastructure groups operate extensively across India, Indonesia, the Gulf, and Brazil.
About Dushyant Khanna
Dushyant Khanna is a Melbourne-based businessman with over 20 years of experience across finance, property, and energy. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Panache Capital, a Director of 3 Group, and Global Director of TerraGrid Energy, which develops data centres and renewable energy projects.
About iBRICS
iBRICS is the sovereign investment and deal summit held alongside the BRICS Leaders’ Summit, convened by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI). Its inaugural edition took place in New Delhi in September 2026.
Dushyant Khanna while hosting the BRICS Boardroom during iBRICS Summit 2026 in New Delhi.
