Assassinating Jugaad: The case for rigor -I
Assassinating Jugaad: The case for rigor - I Last fall the colloquial Hindi term jugaad was included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) update - an event that was widely celebrated 1 . But, what does jugaad truly mean? The OED defines jugaad as "a flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way" and it is this conflation of jugaad with 'innovation' that has brought the term into popular use. Wikipedia states that "Jugaad is increasingly accepted as a management technique and is recognized all over the world as an acceptable form of frugal engineering at peak in India”. So today, jugaad is much like the two faced Roman god Janus, where one face symbolizes a struggle against adversity, while the other symbolizes ‘frugal innovation’. India’s souls yearns to be a jagat-guru once again, and it has embraced the concept of ‘ jugaad ’ with open arms. But, jugaad is also a mind set. A mind set of shortcutting; flo