No, Centre did not copy the BRICS 2026 logo from a hospital’s logo as claimed by Congress supporters, here is the truth

On the 13th of January 2026, the Ministry of External Affairs launched the official logo, theme and website of the upcoming BRICS Summit. The BRICS India 2026 logo is inspired by India’s national flower lotus. At the design’s centre, the inner petals form two hands resembling a Namaste, and the five petals represent the founding BRICS member countries. While the logo reflects India’s cultural identity and unity among BRICS nations, the usual suspects floated claims that the logo is a copy of the logo of a hospital in Telangana. Launched preparations for BRICS India 2026 with the unveiling of website, theme and logo, alongside MoS’ @KVSinghMPGonda and @PmargheritaBJP.’s chairship of BRICS will adopt a ‘Humanity-first’ and ‘people-centric’ approach to build for resilience, innovation, cooperation and… pic.twitter.com/zhLIIzrokf— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) January 13, 2026 Alleging that the government officials somehow ‘plagiarised’ the BRICS 2026 logo, one pro-Congress troll wrote, “This is embarrassing. India’s official BRICS 2026 logo has been copied straight from a Telangana Hospital. Imagine the laziness of Indian Babus.” Another pro-Congress troll also peddled the claim that the Centra copied the Lotus Hospital logo, which was originally designed by a Bihar-based man named Lalit Kamal Kumar for just Rs 200. “Lotus Care Hospital logo was designed by Lalit Kamal Kumar from Bihar for just ₹200. BRICS 2026 simply lifted that logo from Lotus Care and claimed that their designers created it, saying it took them a lot of time to create this masterpiece. New India,” the X user wrote. Similarly, ‘journalist’ Pankaj Pachauri, who was media advisor for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, amplified the ‘BRICS logo copied from a hospital ’claim on X. “As an ultimate proof of India’s ‘Creator Economy’ prowess, the logo of #BRICS2026 has been copied from a 12 year old Hospital. A strong signal to the world of copy paste governance!” Pachauri wrote. Another X user wrote, “What a coincidence! The new BRICS logo already exists. For Lotus Cure Mutlispeciality Hospital. ‘Selected through an open contest’.” Meanwhile, leftist propaganda portal The Wire also jumped the bandwagon and published a report titled, “BRICS 2026 Logo Sparks Row Over Resemblance to Hyderabad Hospital Emblem”. Throwing its weight behind social media users, The Wire claimed that while the Centre said that the BRICS logo was designed by a calligraphist named Sudeep Subhash Gandhi, it is actually an outright copy-paste of the logo of the Lotus Hospital in Telangana. Did Centre copy BRICS logo from that of a hospital? Before delving into whether the Central government copied the BRICS 2026 logo from that of a hospital, it is important to note that the logo unveiled by Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar on 13th January is very similar, in fact, it is almost the same as that used for India’s BRICS chairship in 2016. While the government’s decision to reuse the logo instead of coming up with a new one could be a debate, as India has no dearth of creativity and talented artists, the claim that the logo is an outright copy of the logo of a hospital is factually incorrect. The logo was originaly designed for the BRICS summit in India in 2016. MT @MEAIndia Check out the #BRICS 2016 logo: a symbol of prosperity, a mark of unity. pic.twitter.com/V3Xdjye4z3— PIB India (@PIB_India) March 22, 2016 The original logo, that is the BRICS 2016 logo, was designed by Sudeep Subhash Gandhi. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha back in December 2016, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, informed that the logo in question was selected via an open contest. This contest was launched by the Ministry of External Affairs on the Government of India’s Citizen Engagement Platform, http://www.mygov.in. In this contest, the entry of Sudeep Subhash Gandhi was selected. The logo designed by Gandhi was described as, “As India is the host of 8th BRICS summit, we have incorporated the Indian salutation ‘Namaste; in the centre. Namaste is the gesture of welcoming and respecting someone on arrival. The overall logo depicts the national flower of India ‘Lotus’. The perception of the countrymen and the world towards India has changed in the last 1.5 years. As Lotus is the symbol of prosperity and India is heading in the same direction, we have designed Lotus with the colours signifying BRICS members and their unity.” Since the BRICS India 2026 logo is same as the BRICS India 2016 logo, claiming that it is plagiarised from a hospital’s logo means that the 2016 BRICS India logo too was a copy-paste. Coming back to whether the BRICS India logo was copied from that of Telangana’s Lotus Cure Multi Speciality Hospital, the answer lies in when the hospital was registered. While the logo was created for BRICS summit in 2016, official records show that the Lotus Cure Multi Speciality Hospital