Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh on Friday, 2 October 2026, declared that robotics is set to become a foundational enabler across every branch of medicine in India — extending well beyond surgery into diagnostics, treatment, and therapy — as the country accelerates its shift toward precision and personalised healthcare.

Key Developments at SRS India 2026

Speaking at the International Conference of the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS India 2026) in New Delhi, Dr Singh said robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and nanoscience are expected to converge into an integrated ecosystem that will fundamentally transform how healthcare is delivered. This ecosystem, he argued, will enable treatments tailored specifically to individual patients rather than broad population groups.

Dr Singh, who is also a practising physician and diabetologist, urged the medical community not to view robotics solely through the lens of surgical technology. While robotic surgery currently represents the most visible application, he said future advancements could give rise to entirely new sub-disciplines — robotic medicine, robotic endocrinology, and robotic cardiology — mirroring the trajectory AI has already taken across multiple medical specialties.

Frontier Technologies and the Next Healthcare Phase

Highlighting the rapid pace of transformation in medical science, Dr Singh said the world is entering an era of frontier technologies driven by advances in AI, biotechnology, nuclear medicine, nanotechnology, and robotics. The next phase of healthcare, he said, will be increasingly shaped by genetically driven diagnostics and personalised treatment approaches based on an individual's genetic profile, lifestyle, dietary habits, and environmental factors.

He emphasised that patients suffering from the same disease may require markedly different treatment strategies depending on their biological and environmental characteristics — a core principle of precision medicine. Emerging technologies, he added, are making such customised healthcare delivery progressively more feasible.

Genome India Programme and the AI Imperative

Referring to the Genome India Programme, Dr Singh noted that 10,000 individuals have already been sequenced under the initiative. He expressed optimism that India could eventually move toward gene sequencing for every newborn. Managing and analysing genetic data at such a scale — for a population exceeding 1.4 billion — would, he said, require extensive deployment of both AI and robotics.

This comes amid a broader government push to position India as a global hub for biotechnology and deep-science innovation, with several initiatives under the Science and Technology Ministry aimed at translating research into clinical applications.

Nanomedicine and the Oral Insulin Frontier

Dr Singh also spotlighted the potential of nanomedicine to address longstanding healthcare challenges. Citing ongoing efforts to develop oral insulin, he said nano-level innovations could significantly improve drug delivery systems, opening new possibilities for treatment and disease management — particularly relevant for India's large diabetic population.

What Comes Next

As India's healthcare technology ecosystem matures, the convergence of robotics, AI, genomics, and nanomedicine is expected to accelerate, with conferences such as SRS India 2026 serving as key platforms for cross-disciplinary collaboration. The government's stated ambition of sequencing every newborn and scaling precision medicine will be closely watched for follow-through in policy and funding.