New Delhi, October 2: Robotics will become an accelerating tool in every specialty of medicine, from diagnosis to treatment and therapy, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday. Speaking at the International Conference of the Society of Robotic Surgery, SRS India 2026, he said the technology should not be thought of as something confined to surgery.
“It’s a tool. It will happen everywhere,” said Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, who is also a physician and diabetologist. While the conference was about robotic surgery, he said, the future could bring robotic medicine, robotic endocrinology and robotic cardiology, much as AI is now finding uses across medical specialties.
Robotics, AI and nanoscience for precision medicine
Singh said robotics, together with artificial intelligence (AI) and nanoscience, would create a larger ecosystem for precision health delivery and precision medicine. Treatment would increasingly be tailored to the individual, even for patients diagnosed with the same disease, based on their genetic profile, environment, lifestyle and diet.
He said the next phase of medicine would see wider use of genetically driven diagnostics, alongside advances in quantum technologies, nanomedicine and robotics.
Gene sequencing for every newborn
Referring to the Genome India Programme, Singh said 10,000 individuals had already been sequenced. He hoped India could eventually move towards gene sequencing for every newborn, and said doing this for a population of 1.4 billion would need the best possible use of AI and robotics.
He also spoke about nanomedicine, citing efforts to develop oral insulin. Advances at the nano level, he said, could help overcome the limits of conventional drug delivery and open up new treatment possibilities.
Tele-robotics to take specialists to patients
Singh said India’s size, diversity and geographical spread make AI, robotics and tele-robotics particularly relevant to healthcare. Recalling his own experience with robotic ultrasonography, he said he had performed an ultrasound on a person 10,000 kilometres away in Antarctica.
“Instead of the patient being referred to the doctor, it will be the doctor being referred to the patient,” he said. Tele-robotics, he added, could let specialist expertise reach patients across geographical boundaries without them having to travel.
India’s changing disease profile
The minister said infectious diseases in India still exist alongside metabolic and lifestyle-related disorders, and illnesses once associated with later life are now increasingly seen in younger people. Dealing with this, he said, needs advanced technology as well as a more integrated and holistic approach.
Singh congratulated the organisers of SRS India 2026 for bringing robotic surgery into institutional learning, academics and professional conferences, and said adopting technologies such as robotics was essential to keep pace with medical science.
Related: Nanomedicine can drive next generation of precision healthcare: Jitendra Singh