ARAPL is Succeeding in its Mission ‘Making India a Robotic Hub’

ARAPL's vision is to sell made-in-India Robotic products in India as well as other parts of the world- Mr. Milind Padole, MD of Affordable Robotic &Automation Ltd. (ARAPL), a BSE SME listed company.

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TimesTech Buzz: How has ARAPL’s journey been so far? Please give a brief about the company?

Milind Padole: The journey started in 2005, when I decided to come to India and start robotic product in India. We started to work in making robots/machines which was niche. In 2007 we set up in house Facility for Designing, manufacturing and Robot Programing, then in 2013 we set up Sales & Service office in Faridabad (North India) and also started automated Car Parking. During 2017, we started sales and service in Shanghai, and started to sell made-in-India robotic lines in China. The journey was rough but thankfully of ARAPL’s hard work we got listed in BSE SME exchange in 2019.

TimesTech Buzz: Robotics, Automation are booming industries in India and abroad. How is ARAPL planning to cater to the market?

Milind Padole: This is year we are planning lot of things to do, and hoping to start all in this year. For example, we are planning to sell our product in India and Robots in North and South America. We are also planning to launch the warehousing robots as there is lot of boom in this segment.

TimesTech Buzz: What was the mission & vision behind starting the venture?

Milind Padole: My vision is to sell made-in-India Robotic product in India as well as other part of the world. I always wanted to come back to India and start Robotic products here. Our mission was making India a Robotic hub as we have the skilled low cost workforce. One of the goal we are working on is to list our company in Nasdaq in next five years.

TimesTech Buzz: Who are your competitors in the market & what distinctive ARAPL has to offer from them?

Milind Padole: There are lot of competitor of ARAPL, mostly are foreign players, but we have a cost advantage and in the last 15 years we have developed the design legacy to develop niche robots in affordable price in our field which can get us scalability in coming years with price advantages. The made-in-India robots will also help us to boost our product in foreign market.

TimesTech Buzz: How has the pandemic affected the working of the company?

Milind Padole: The pandemic has bought lot of difficulties but also it taught us to fight against it and stand strong. Though the revenue was effected but on the brighter side ARAPL team got lot of time to optimize existing processes, think together to do lot of R&D innovate. We also manufactured some futuristic robots and worked on our plan for this year that we are hoping to execute soon.

TimesTech Buzz: Are there any plans to work with Indian central or state government?

Milind Padole: We work with smart cities in one of our verticals and for other verticals we have the plan to start working for Indian Railways.

TimesTech Buzz: Who are your partners for the raw material, transport and distribution?

Milind Padole: Raw material & Transport are all local vendors. Some of the motors and PLCs are imported from Germany & Japan. Distribution is done by us. Due to a shortage of Oxygen in the industry, we are facing a severe crisis to process metal cutting and our operations have again slowed down this year. We are finding some other solution to keep working.

TimesTech Buzz: What are the two big dreams ARAPL wants to achieve?

Milind Padole: One big dream is to list ARAPL in Nasdaq and the last assignment I want to work on post NASDAQ listing is overhead public transport. Our domain expertise was always bulk material transfer automation robotics. We want to make carts that will move in the sky on fixed rails at a speed of 200 km/hr. This transport will be very economical; fast and completely automatic.