Inspiring article on Jugaadu innovations

My inspiration for this blog was this article in the August 24 2008 issue of The Week magazine. The beginning itself was inspirational enough to force me read the whole article and start this blog.

The good news is that we now believe we have an innate innovation streak and that it is something worth nurturing.

The article points out that the small-scale Indian businesses have realized their own potential for innovation and started using innovative ideas derived from local preferences to sell their products and compete with similar low-cost products from China. Competition for domestic markets from outside is forcing the small Indian businesses, who traditionally ruled the domestic markets, to constantly keep innovating for the price-savvy Indian consumer.

Some common examples of innovative ideas that the article cites are:

• The invention of the Mehendi Cone and the Mehendi Stencil has given birth to a new industry of Mehendi artists who now charge a hefty sum for making artwork on your body.
• The same old 18 feet sari (traditional Indian dress) has kept changing and adapting itself for the modern Indian women.
• Some time back, Hindustan Petroleum set up community centres called Rasoi Ghars in a room provided by the village community equipped with a water connection, many gas stoves on a cooking platform, and a 'pay-as-you-use' metering facility.

Some examples of large-scale innovative ideas given are (some are taken verbatim from the article) :

• The Tata Nano, touted as the worlds cheapest car priced at Rs. 1 lakh (~ $2500), has set new standards in low-cost automobile engineering.This car is specifically built for the price conscious middle-class Indian.
  
• Kirloskar Brothers designed a pumping system for the Sardar Sarovar dam which could do the job at a fraction of the cost of any established pumping system.
• Vortex Engineering, a Chennai-based company connected with IIT-Madras, has innovated an ATM that is ideal for rural areas-it costs about one fourth of currently available ATMs. It does not require an air-conditioned environment and does away with PIN numbers by using fingerprinting and other biometric means of identifying the user.
• Gian Shala, an Ahmedabad based NGO, has made it possible for two kids to learn on one computer by splitting the screen in two, one half operated with the keyboard and the other half with the mouse. The result is lower cost per child and enhanced learning from each other.

The article ends with the following quote by Dr. Mashelkar which i believe sets the stage for our future. He says

"we should think of innovation as a movement. The I in India has stood for imitation and inhibition for far too long. It is high time it stood for innovation. And the best thing about this movement is that we have the jugaad energy of a billion of us to power it forward. "