Jugaad Concept

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CALCUTTA

WORKING PAPER SERIES

WPS No. 677/ August 2011

JUGAAD- Not just “Making do” but a Low Cost Survival & Coping Strategy at the Bottom of the Pyramids.

by

Ramendra Singh Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Joka, Kolkata 700104

Vaibhav Gupta B.Tech Student, Department of Applied physics, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, India

&

Akash Mondal B.Tech Student, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India

JUGAAD- Not just “Making do” but a Low Cost Survival & Coping Strategy at the Bottom of the Pyramids. Prof. Ramendra Singh1*, Vaibhav Gupta2#, Akash Mondal3^ Abstract Till the recent times, Indian jugaad was another term for frugal innovation. Literally,it referred to the low-cost locally made vehicles used as a means of transportation in the rural India constructed as a result of the lack of resources and unhealthy financial conditions. The vehicle does not need any registration and is thus, also free from paying any road tax. Contrary to this, in the business and management literature, the term has much more added to its context. The paper discusses Indian jugaad as not only a way of “making do” but a methodology that has emerged as a way of survival for the people at the bottom of the pyramids. The lack of capital and resources causing the unaffordability of the basic amenities motivates the option of jugaad in the BOP. The paper mainly focuses on such jugaads that are taking place at the BOP level. Varying from a common BOP household to the entire chain of BOP entrepreneurship, the paper covers all the major innovations that have lifted the lives of these people. The paper discusses various physical jugaads involved in different sectors at BOP, such as a KUTCHA house, the cooking stove such as CHULHAs, and other small scale jugaads in the transportation, health, ICT and water. Some social and emotional jugaads

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