Robots may be employer-friendly but ...

Robots are not new to industrial manufacturing. They have been in use since the 1960s. Industrial economies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan are the earliest and major users of robots. In more recent years, the use of industrial robots has increased in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in South Korea, China, Australia, Thailand and India. Industrial robots are most widely used in automobile assembling and the electronics industries.

Though installation of robots in technologically advanced, high-income, and most importantly labor-scarce economies, may not raise eyebrows, it would do so in labor-surplus economies. It is therefore not surprising that Foxconn's decision to introduce 1 million robots in its production value chain by 2013 has created a flutter.

Foxconn - one of the largest private enterprises in China - known for designing electronic items for Apple and other leading global brands, is introducing robots to shift workers to more innovative and higher ends of the value chain. The robots that will be introduced over the next couple of years will replace humans in more mechanical functions.