India can use digital or virtual trade corridors to make cross-border trade faster and easier as physical infrastructure across BRICS countries develops, RITES Chairman and Managing Director Rahul Mithal said at the India Today BRICS Roundtable in New Delhi.
Mithal said several global corridors are being explored or developed, but major infrastructure gaps still need to be addressed to make them fully operational. Closing these gaps will require significant investment.
He said India, given its role in several global groupings, is well-placed to make use of these emerging trade routes.
Building roads, railways, ports and other physical infrastructure takes years and requires large investments. Digital trade corridors, however, can start connecting countries much sooner by allowing different stakeholders to exchange information more efficiently.
Mithal pointed to the India-UAE virtual trade corridor as an example. RITES began working on the project after an agreement was signed in 2024 to explore the digital corridor along the India-UAE leg of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.
The aim is to make trade between the two countries smoother by connecting stakeholders such as customs authorities, ports, exporters, importers and customs agents.
Mithal said better data exchange could be an important first step towards improving trade between countries, particularly where physical connectivity is still being developed.
Artificial intelligence could play a role in expanding such virtual corridors across countries, Mithal said.
International trade involves a large number of messages, forms and data fields. While countries may ask for similar information, the way that data is structured can vary.
AI can help map these different formats and make it easier to scale the system across new countries and trade routes.
RITES, which has more than five decades of experience in infrastructure consultancy, is also expanding its international presence.
Apart from its traditional markets in Africa and neighbouring South Asian countries, the company has been growing in Latin America and West Asia. Mithal said the UAE, Jordan and other West Asian markets offer significant opportunities as they expand railway, metro and port infrastructure.
He also stressed that AI should be used as a tool to improve human expertise rather than replace it. RITES is already using AI-based visual inspection systems to help engineers identify potential railway failure points using data from past projects.
For BRICS, Mithal said the focus should remain on making cross-border trade easier. Starting with smaller bilateral projects such as virtual trade corridors could help countries build trust and gradually move towards wider multilateral connectivity.