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. "

What is "Jugaad"?

Welcome to the Indian "Jugaad" blog. Before i begin, let me first clarify the meaning of the word "Jugaad" and my reasons for starting this blog. First of all, the word itself is not my own but a colloquially used word in Northern India. This wikipedia entry suggests the following meanings :

• As a noun, "jugaad" means a quick-easy-dirty fix or a resource that can be used as such.
  
• As a verb, "jugaad" indicates the ingenuity to achieve results by out of box thinking, at times even temporary fixes.
  

There is a brilliant contraption by that same name that captures a very unique aspect about Indian ingenuity and which forms the inspiration for this blog. This contraption is essentially a motorized wagon completely built using cheaply available parts. It is probably the cheapest four wheeler anywhere in the world. The wagon is not built for comfort but just to serve the basic purpose of mass transportation in rural areas. The jugaad can supposedly carry upto 30-35 people (maybe more) and forms the connectivity backbone for villages. Truly amazing ! Isnt it a true "Jugaad"? Check for yourself in the photo below.

Photo Credits : Taken by Sanjay Ahlawat and it appeared in the August 24 2008 issue of The Week magazine.

This blog is exactly about this type of out-of-the-box thinking and i can safely bet that there are millions more in India. It is this very ingenuity of the common Indian that keeps this country ticking and makes it possible for the common man to survive. I have always pondered over the question of "Why India Works?" inspite of so many blatant issues in the administration and i now truly believe that the answer is summarized by this one word : Jugaad.

Purists would argue that the word Jugaad can have both a positive and a negative connotation. I do not disagree. But this blog is only above the positives. To that end, the purpose of this blog is to document the various ingenious Jugaads built by and for the common Indian. The hope is that this blog would enable the innovations to be accessible to a wider audience and hence propel further innovation.