This refers to Subir Gokarn's column "Made by robots" (Muddy Waters, June 1) making a case for preparing India for the use of robots in manufacturing, with which we all might agree. Three additional points need consideration. First, robots being ultra-smart machines, the overall required modernisation level of Indian manufacturing will decide to what extent robots can be absorbed seamlessly in its operations (the stories emerging from South Korea on the use of robots might confirm this.) Second, as a national policy, we must continuously donate a few thousand robots to our elite and other respected technology institutes. The young engineers coming out of these institutes must have hands-on experience of these state-of-the-art robots in their well-developed departments of robotics - this may also correspondingly need much improvement in the quality of the projects undertaken by them at colleges.
Finally, the use of robots in industry needs to be closely regulated by governments, as Indian manufacturers will overuse them at the first opportunity to eliminate or reduce the labour force, if their previous record with mechanisation is anything to go by.
Y P Issar Karnal
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