What’s Common Between a Washing Machine and Lassi? Jugaad: Indian Innovation

Anil Maheshwari, TIR, 2 September 2014: Recalling his experiments with ‘jugaad’, veteran journalist Sir Mark Tully writes that once the radiator in his car (Ambassador mark) broke down while travelling on a district road in Western Uttar Pradesh. The nearby town was about 20 kms. away. As he approached a wayside mechanic, he was offered a ‘jugaad’. The mechanic advised him to pour water laced with turmeric powder in the radiator to prevent the leakage. The suggestion worked well and Sir Mark reached next town safely. In another incident, an improvised rope (twigs entwined) was used by him in place of the broken fan-belt, as there was no shop nearby.

‘Jugaad’ is a smart, out-of-the-box way to achieve results, used for solutions often bending rules. ‘Jugaad’ is a colloquial Hindi word that means an innovative fix or a simple work-around, sometimes pejoratively used for solutions that bend rules, or a resource that can be used as such, or a person who can solve a complicated issue. It is used as much to describe enterprising street mechanics as for political fixers. This meaning is often used to signify creativity to make existing things work or to create new things with meagre resources.

The ‘jugaad’ concept can be contrasted with the Western (originally American) concept of a hack or kludge. Although in its general meaning “hack” is very similar to ‘jugaad’, a ‘jugaad’ can be thought of more as a survival tactic; in contrast, a hack, especially nowadays, is seen an intellectual art form. Both concepts express a need to do what needs to be done, without regard to what is conventionally supposed to be possible.

‘Jugaad’ is increasingly accepted as a management technique and is recognised all over the world as an acceptable form of frugal engineering at peak in India. Companies in India are adopting ‘jugaad’ as a practice to reduce research and development costs. ‘Jugaad’ also applies to any kind of creative and out of the box thinking or life hacking, which maximises resources for a company and its stakeholders.

In fact in our daily life the presence of ‘jugaad’ seems to be from time immemorial. However, it gained currency on institutional lines about four decades ago when an ingenious car mechanic replaced the petrol engine with a second-hand diesel motor boat engine, imported from Singapore as a scrap, in an Ambassador mark car. As there was a wide gap between the rates of petrol and diesel, the ‘jugaad’ became a virus within no time. Soon after, the car manufacturing companies followed suit and came out with diesel variants of their products.

During the last two decades, ‘jugaad’ vehicles, powered by an agricultural water pump engine and mounted on a wooden frame, have started plying on the roads in Northern India. A ‘jugaad’ vehicle costs around Rs. 50,000. Though it has poor brakes, it is used unbridled. It cannot go faster than about 60 km/h. The vehicle often carries more than 20 people at a time in remote locations amidst poor road conditions. Today, a ‘jugaad’ is one of the most cost effective transportation solutions for rural India. Though no statistical data is available, it is reported that there are a number of instances of failing brakes, requiring a passenger to jump off and manually apply a wooden block as a brake. These vehicles do not have any vehicle registration plate, as they are not registered with the Regional Transport Office (RTO). Hence, no road tax is paid on them.

‘Jugaads’ are not officially recognised as road-worthy, and despite a few proposals to regulate them, vote-bank politics have trumped safety concerns. The improvised vehicles have now become rather popular as a means to transport all manner of items, from lumber to steel rods to ferrying schoolchildren.

A few years ago, Raj Nath Singh, the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh did not think twice before assuring villagers in election meetings that the government would regularise ‘jugaad’ if the voters make a ‘jugaad’ to vote his party to the power. However, in 2010, cracking the whip against ‘jugaad’, the Rajasthan State government issued a directive to the officials of transport department to challan the drivers of such vehicles and seize them forthwith. The government directive came after a division bench of the Rajasthan High Court took suo motu cognizance of the fatal ‘jugaad’ accidents.

‘Jugaad’ is not restricted to vehicles only. About a decade ago, washing machines making ‘lassi’ became all the rage in Punjab where cheap, locally manufactured washing machines doubled up as churners of ‘lassi’. As many shops were too tiny to accommodate washing machines, some innovators took a table fan shaft, modified it and added blades to make portable blenders. A potter from Wankaner, a town in Gujarat invented ‘Mitti’ Cool, a refrigerator made out of clay. This eco-friendly wonder doesn’t use electricity and can cool ample water, vegetables and milk.

Little wonder, ‘Jugaad’ has also entered the lexicon as a concept known in management-speak as frugal innovation. ‘Jugaad’ has recently gained more attention in the West, thanks to the efforts of people like Navi Radjou, an enthusiastic member of the pro-jugaad camp. A Palo Alto-based “innovation and leadership strategist” who was born in Pondicherry, Radjou is co-author of “Jugaad Innovation” along with Jaideep Prabhu, a professor at Cambridge, and Simone Ahuja, founder of Blood Orange Media. The book, describes what Western companies can learn from ‘jugaad’ and similar concepts common in many developing countries.

The book is a celebration of the ingenuity of entrepreneurs in emerging markets like India and China who, despite having very limited resources, are able to tap into their sheer ingenuity to come up with very simple but effective solutions to address major issues, whether it’s in health care or education or any other sector you can think about.

Even renowned industrialist Anand Mahindra has opined that the time has come for India to move from ‘jugaad‘ (somehow) to ‘jhakkaas‘ (superb). He said, “Low-cost innovation is essential for solving many problems facing the country. We should not confuse ‘jugaad’ with frugal innovation. ‘Jugaad’ does imply a positive ‘can-do’ attitude, but unfortunately, also involves a ‘make-do’ approach. It can, hence, lead to compromises on quality and rarely involves cutting edge or breakthrough technology. ‘Constraint-led Innovation’ is a better approach. It targets the most advanced technology but with a philosophy of ‘more for less’.