7 ways AI can damage Indian economy if it clings to cheap manual labour?

AI and robots will automate many routine, low-skill jobs (assembly lines, warehousing, call centres). If India delays re-skilling and keeps expanding manual-labour sectors, the eventual shock when automation arrives will be sharper: millions unemployed, with insufficient alternative employment. Higher long-term unemployment means greater welfare spending, shrinking tax receipts and strained state finances, a fiscal stress that can cascade into social instability.