How India plans to turn ‘jugaad’ into large scale innovation

At Innofest 2015 in Bangalore last weekend, the topic of choice amongst attendees, patrons and participants was jugaad. Jugaad, a colloquial Hindi word that refers to the innovation that occurs under constrained circumstances, was added to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary last year and has come to represent the spirit of Indian innovation.

For example, in the following photo, a man has poked holes in the cap of his water bottle in order to use it as a spray. Instead of having to purchase a special spray bottle, the invention allows him to minimize costs and make use of the resources that exist around him.

Whether it involves broken belt buckles that have been replaced with forks, small chairs tied to the front of motorcycles to provide extra seating, or washing machines used to churn out butter and lassi, a yogurt-based drink, examples of jugaad can be seen every day in India.

Jugaad is not limited to fixing daily issues. Dr. Pushkar Waknis was recently in the news for using a paper clip to keep skin flaps in place while performing surgeries, thereby avoiding the US$800 cost of the otherwise expensive medical device.

The many sides of jugaad

When jugaad first made its appearance in Indian culture, it referred to those that were using their resources to manipulate their way out of a situation. Those who employed it were seen as clever but untrustworthy.

Over the years, however, the meaning has evolved from cunning to ingenious. In business schools and corporations, acts of jugaad are now referred to as “crisis management” and “frugal innovation”. Elsewhere, the “make do with what we have” attitude has been heralded as the best method for those in emerging economies to survive.

At Innofest, Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys, explained that he feels that “jugaad is the result of a dysfunctional system”. This attitude is echoed by many. While it represents frugality, ingenuity and minimalism to some, others feel that the word denotes a quick, immediate fix that will eventually have long-term repercussions.

When is jugaad innovation? And when is it not?

In 2014’s Global Innovation Index, India was ranked the 76th most innovative country in the world. That was ten places lower than the year before. While India scores highly in aspects like IT services exports and the quality of its universities, it is ranked dismally low in things like human capital and research.

In 2013, however, reports indicated that there were 175000 independent cases of innovation projects at grassroots levels. Unfortunately, most of these instances were immediately disregarded as instances of jugaad. According to Rishikesha T Krishnan, a professor at IIM Bangalore, products made from jugaad do not count as innovation because they lack the ability to scale and do not fit with the aspirations of the mainstream Indian consumer. As he explains, it is difficult for individual grassroots efforts to achieve impact in a country with the size and diversity of India.

Solutions to bring jugaad to the world

There have been several efforts to legitimize jugaad.

Most acts of jugaad happen because people can’t afford better alternatives, lack access to applicable products and exist in a market that just doesn’t understand their needs. Many entrepreneurs have begun to create jugaad-inspired products that are made specifically for those who need it the most.

Godrej’s Chotu-Kool, for example, is a 45-liter plastic container that uses insulation to keep perishables like milk and vegetables cool for one to two days. It is affordable (just over US$50), runs on a rechargeable 12-volt battery, and combats issues of unreliable access to electricity. Although the target audience of the Chotu-Kool is India’s low income population, it is not limited to that area. The Chotu-Kool is now sold in mainstream stores as an attractive, affordable alternative to otherwise expensive and electricity-reliant refrigerators.

Reach for the moon

At Innofest 2015, organized by tech think tank iSpirt, the spirit of innovation was thriving. “There is a mood change in the country and the city,” explained Anurag Kumar, director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the campus that was hosting Innofest. “The kind of innovations that IISC students are capable of go beyond jugaad.”

Approachable innovations

Removing elitism from innovation

Aggregating jugaad to reach innovation