Mumbai: Despite automation being considered as a threat in India, Universal Robots – Robots maker of Denmark, is expecting that the robots deployment in medium, small and micro enterprises (MSME) sector is going to be more than double in next 3-5 years.
The maker of collaborative robots or ‘cobots’ — robots that work with humans in manufacturing facilities — currently has 400 robots deployed, and sees the number rising to 1,000 in the near future. To be sure, India still contributes less than 5 per cent to its global revenue of around $170 million.
“In the past, MSMEs could not afford the technology, but now, they are big users of cobots. We have many customers with less than 50 employees who are deploying them,” Pradeep David, general manager, South Asia for Universal Robots said during his recent visit to Mumbai.
The use of robots on Indian assembly lines has always been viewed with scepticism, considering the number of manual jobs these robots could displace in a country that is already teeming with a large number of unemployed youth.
