UPSC Mains 2015 GS Paper 3 Q12: model answer
What are the areas of prohibitive labour that can be sustainably managed by robots? Discuss the initiatives that can propel research in premier research institutes for substantive and gainful innovation.
What the question wants
Identify hazardous or degrading work that robots can sustainably take over, and discuss initiatives to boost useful research in premier institutes.
How to structure it
Where robots, then research push.
- Prohibitive labour areas
- Why robots are sustainable here
- Concerns
- Initiatives for research
- Way forward
How to think it through
Prohibitive labour: manual scavenging and sewer cleaning (Bandicoot robot by Genrobotics, Kerala), mining, bomb disposal (DRDO Daksh), nuclear plants, firefighting, deep-sea, chemical handling, disaster rescue, agricultural spraying (drones). Sustainability: worker safety, dignity, efficiency; but job loss, cost. Research: industry–academia links, IMPRINT (2015), Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana, Atal Innovation Mission, NM-ICPS (2018) with TIHs, ANRF, research parks, PMRF, startup incubators.
Model answer
In Kerala, a startup called Genrobotics built a robot named Bandicoot that cleans manholes so that no human has to go down into one. Every year, sewer deaths still make news in India. Some work is too dangerous or degrading for people, and that is where robots belong first.
Areas of prohibitive labour
- Manual scavenging and sewer cleaning, banned by law in 2013 but still practised.
- Mining, especially underground coal and rat-hole mining.
- Bomb disposal: DRDO's Daksh robot.
- Nuclear plants and radioactive waste handling.
- Firefighting, chemical leaks and disaster rescue in collapsed buildings.
- Pesticide spraying, now done by drones.
- Handling hazardous waste such as e-waste and hospital waste.
- Deep-sea and pipeline inspection.
Why robots are sustainable here
- Save lives and restore dignity.
- Work longer, more precisely and in places humans cannot reach.
- Cost falls as volume grows.
Concerns
- Workers displaced must be retrained.
- High upfront cost for municipalities.
- Maintenance in small towns and the risk that robots exist on paper while workers still enter sewers.
Initiatives for research in premier institutes
- IMPRINT (2015): IITs and IISc working on national problems.
- Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana: industry-funded research.
- National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (2018) with Technology Innovation Hubs.
- Atal Innovation Mission and incubators.
- ANRF (2023) and the PM Research Fellowship.
Way forward
- Public procurement of indigenous robots, research parks and patent support.
The best use of a robot is to do the job no human should have to do.
Draw: A table: hazardous task → robot solution → Indian example.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
manual scavenging, Bandicoot, Genrobotics, Daksh DRDO, PEMSR Act 2013, rat-hole mining, IMPRINT, Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana, NM-ICPS, TIH, AIM, ANRF.
Where most answers lose marks
- Writing only about robots replacing jobs. The question asks where they 'sustainably' help.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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