Will robots only destroy factory jobs?

They will cut some shop-floor roles. The public case is to remove lethal work and to create design and maintenance jobs, which needs planned reskilling.

Is buying foreign robots enough?

It can save lives quickly. Substantive innovation still needs Indian institutes, parts, and a domestic buyer, or the country stays a user.

What are the areas of prohibitive labour that can be sustainably managed by

Revision summary

Open summary Close summary

Prohibitive labour is hazardous, dirty, dull, or extreme work in mines, radiation, explosives, fire, underwater, space, furnaces, and isolation wards. Robots can take that load if power, parts, safety, and worker reskilling are funded. Premier institutes need mission testbeds, DRDO-ISRO-CSIR problem statements, and long chairs, not one-year gadgets. Industry must buy qualified Indian machines so research has a market. Score labs on field deployment with users such as NDRF and hospitals.

Model answer

Flow diagram

flowchart TD
  HAZ[Prohibitive labour] --> R[Robots in field]
  R --> S[Power spares safety reskill]
  LAB[IIT IISc missions] --> INN[Substantive innovation]
  BUY[DRDO ISRO industry] --> INN
  INN --> R

Conclusion

Pick five national use-cases — mine rescue, bomb disposal, sewer, hospital isolation, and farm spraying — and score institutes on field hours, not papers alone.
Create a public robotics proving ground and a fast import window for research parts that now sit in customs.
Tie fellowships to deployment with a user (NDRF, a mine, a hospital), then let the team spin out a firm.

Robots should take work that kills, poisons, or wears people out: mines, radiation, bombs, fire, deep water, space, furnaces, and contagion. That is sustainable only with maintenance, safety law, and reskilling. Premier institutes will innovate if missions, testbeds, defence and industry buyers, and long fellowships replace short imported demos.

Quick related

Students also ask

Discuss the advantage and security implication of cloud hosting of servers vis-a-vis in house machine based hosting for government business.
Next question in the 2015 paper (Q13). View answer →
Will robots only destroy factory jobs?

They will cut some shop-floor roles. The public case is to remove lethal work and to create design and maintenance jobs, which needs planned reskilling.
Is buying foreign robots enough?

It can save lives quickly. Substantive innovation still needs Indian institutes, parts, and a domestic buyer, or the country stays a user.

PYQ trend

When UPSC asked this

Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.

More from this paper

Q1 · UPSC Mains 2015 · GS III · 12 marks

The nature of economic growth in India in recent times is often described as a jobless growth. Do you agree with this view? Give arguments in favour of your answer.

Indian Economy

Jobless growth means GDP rises much faster than decent employment. NSSO-era data showed weak employment elasticity in the 2000s despite high output growth. Organised manufacturing stayed thin; services and capital-intensive industry added value with few regular jobs. Construction and informal work absorbed some labour, so the claim is about quality more than a literal zero. A job-rich path needs labour-intensive factories, skills and easier formal hiring.

View answer → Download PDF

Q2 · UPSC Mains 2015 · GS III · 12 marks

Livestock rearing has a big potential for providing non- farm employment and income in rural areas. Discuss suggesting suitable measures to promote this sector in India.

Indian Economy

Livestock gives year-round cash, especially to small and land-poor rural households. Dairy cooperatives and NDDB already proved a scalable non-farm income model. National Livestock Mission, Rashtriya Gokul Mission and the National Dairy Plan are the present Union tools. Feed, vaccination, insurance and milk-meat markets decide whether animals actually raise income. Women and landless workers gain most from backyard poultry, goats and dairy if extension reaches them.

View answer → Download PDF

Q3 · UPSC Mains 2015 · GS III · 12 marks

In the view of the declining average size of land holdings in India which has made agriculture non - viable for a majority of farmers should contract farming and land leasing be promoted in agriculture? critically evaluate the pros and cons.

Crops, Irrigation and Marketing

Average holdings near 1.15 hectares make many farms too small to cover cost and risk. Contract farming can bring price, seed and offtake, as the Model APMC Act 2003 envisaged. Unequal bargaining, quality rejection and monoculture are the main contract risks. Legal leasing can assemble scale and open credit while the owner keeps title; informal tenancy already exists. Both tools need written terms, FPOs and clean records, not a free hand for sponsors.

View answer → Download PDF

Toppers' copies

Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.

What are the areas of prohibitive labour that can be sustainably managed by robots? Discuss the initiatives that can propel the research in premier research institutes for substantive and gainful innovation.

Revision summary

Model answer

Flow diagram

Conclusion

Students also ask

When UPSC asked this

More from this paper

The nature of economic growth in India in recent times is often described as a jobless growth. Do you agree with this view? Give arguments in favour of your answer.

Livestock rearing has a big potential for providing non- farm employment and income in rural areas. Discuss suggesting suitable measures to promote this sector in India.

In the view of the declining average size of land holdings in India which has made agriculture non - viable for a majority of farmers should contract farming and land leasing be promoted in agriculture? critically evaluate the pros and cons.

Toppers' copies