• Union Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Electronics & IT Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar recently released the draft National Strategy on Robotics for public consultation.

 Draft guidelines

• The national strategy on robotics policy will present significant opportunities for the manufacturing sector, Industry 4.0 and cyber-physical systems among others, it has the potential to create a lot of impact.
• The National Strategy on Robotics aims to capitalize this potential and nurture the development of robotic technology, helping India emerge as a “Robotics Hub” for the world.
• To drive India’s global leadership in Robotics, four sectors of strategic importance have also been identified, namely – manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare and national security.
• To enable India’s emergence as a global leader in the development and adoption of robotics, a comprehensive, coherent, and efficient deployment of the National Strategy on Robotics is proposed to be undertaken as the ‘National Robotics Mission’.
• This will be done through the establishment of the Robotics Innovation Unit (RIU) as an institutional framework under IndiaAI, to facilitate the implementation of the National Strategy on Robotics, adopting a whole ecosystem approach.
• The RIU has been proposed as an agile and fast responsive independent agency that will nurture the dynamic robotics startup, research, and innovation ecosystem in India.
• Multiple interventions have been recommended across the key pillars of a robotics innovation cycle which include Research and Development, Demonstration and Testing, Commercialization and Supply Chain Development, and Adoption and Awareness, to ensure the creation of domestic capabilities in robotic technology in India.