Jugaad

Jugaad (alternatively Juggaar or Jugar) is a colloquial Hindi (Devanagari: जुगाड़), Bengali (যোগাড়), Marathi जुगाड, Punjabi and Urdu (جگاڑ) word, which has various meanings depending on the situation. In Tamil it is translated as உத்தரம், Roughly translated, jugaar is a 'hack'. It could also refer to an innovative fix or a simple work-around, a solution that bends the rules, or a resource that can be used in such a way. It is also often used to signify creativity: to make existing things work, or to create new things with meager resources. Jugaar is increasingly accepted as a management technique and is recognized all over the world as an acceptable form of frugal engineering at peak. Companies in Southeast Asia are adopting jugaar as a practise to reduce research and development costs. Jugaar also applies to any kind of creative and out-of-the-box thinking or life hacks that maximize resources for a company and its stakeholders. Nuclear power corporation of Pakistan has recognized the word 'JuGAAR' as the abbreviation of 'Justified Guideline to Achieve the Desired State'. According to author and professor Jaideep Prabhu, jugaad is an 'important way out of the current economic crisis in developed economies and also holds important lessons for emerging economies'. It is pronounced as jugaard or jugaardh in Hindi, while in Punjabi and Urdu it is spelled as jagaard. Themselves derived from 'Yog(a)', meaning 'joining' or 'union', a cognate of 'yoke'. Jugaad roughly corresponds to do-it-yourself (DIY) in the US, hacking or a bodge in the UK, tapullo in Italy, zìzhǔ chuàngxīn (自主创新) in China, Trick 17 in Germany, gambiarra in Brazil, système D. in France, or jua kali in Kenya; in addition, equivalent words within South Africa are ’n boer maak ’n plan in Afrikaans, izenzele in Zulu, iketsetse in Sotho, and itirele in Tswana. Jugaad can also refer to a quadricycle, a means of transportation in north India, made of wooden planks and old jeep parts, variously known as kuddukka and pietereda. However, jugaad could be used as a term for any low cost vehicle which typically costs around Rs. 50,000 (about US$800). Jugaads are powered by diesel engines originally intended to power agricultural irrigation pumps. They are known for poor brakes, and cannot go faster than about 60 km/h (37 mph). The vehicle often carries more than 20 people at a time in remote locations and poor road conditions. Today, a jugaad is one of the most cost-effective transportation solutions for rural Indians. 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. As part of research for his 2013 book, Innovation and a Global Knowledge Economy in India, Thomas Birtchnell, a lecturer of Sustainable Communities at University of Wollongong, Australia, found that of 2,139 cases of road traffic casualties in 72 hours at J N Medical College hospital in Aligarh, 13.88% of pedestrian casualties were due to jugaad. It was stated by Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan that jugaads do not conform to the specifications of a Motor Vehicle under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. These vehicles hence do not have any vehicle registration plate and they are not registered with the Regional Transport Office (RTO). Hence, no road tax is paid on them, neither there exists any official count of such vehicles.