Robots have evolved significantly from their origins in the 1920s. Modern robots can perform complex actions automatically through computer programming and control. Their capabilities continue to advance with developments in artificial intelligence that allow for speech recognition, learning, planning and problem solving. Robots are used widely in industrial and non-industrial applications such as manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, and space exploration due to their speed, precision and ability to perform hazardous tasks. While robots currently surpass humans in terms of logical thinking and speed, humans maintain advantages in adaptation, speech recognition, planning and decision making. Robotics is gaining scope in India across many industries and the country aims to become a major market for robotic surgery.