Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fixes and Frugal Benefits
The word jugaad is used for many things. Traditionally, it is the name of a rough pick-up
truck type of vehicle assembled in India's northern states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh with
a front end often made from half a motorbike and the rest from a few planks of wood on
wheels. It rumbles through towns and villages, belching noisily, overladen with people, an-
imals, farm produce and other goods. Its owners do not usually pay taxes and are in viol-
ation of motor vehicle laws, despite occasional government and court attempts to curb its
use.
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The vehicle was created some 70 years ago in the city of Ludhiana, in Punjab, which has
always been a centre for innovation and has grown into one of the world's biggest cycle
gineering workshops, Ludhiana's big companies include Hero Cycles and Atlas Cycles,
which are among the world's biggest bicycle manufactures and account for 60 per cent of
India's sales. 'Originally, the small workshops just produced components, then they gradu-
ally assembled them into finished products, generating what is now widely recognized as
jugaad,' says Sudarshan Maini, who runs a company in southern India that excels in fine
engineering.
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Jugaad can also mean fixing a bribe. 'Is there a jugaad?' suggests to a policeman that a
payment is being offered to erase a traffic offence. It was used scathingly by a politician in
2012 to describe what he saw as the coalition government's incompetence at 'managing' its
thinking and a whole range of innovative ideas. For example, farmers and fishermen send
traders missed mobile phone calls as a signal that they need information on market prices
(the caller cancels the call before the other party picks up, so does not have to pay).
When I started to write this topic, I needed a new desk chair. I found a smart black mesh
reclining model in one of the many shops that have sprung up haphazardly along M.G.
Road, a busy highway and metro railway route between Delhi and the new satellite city of
Gurgaon. 'The base and arms come from China, the mesh back from Malaysia and the hy-
draulics and seat are from India,' said G.S. Arora, the owner. 'We put them together in our
local factory - that's jugaad, a cheaper chair. Go and buy a branded chair and you'll pay
twice as much'. He was proud of the way he cobbled together his chairs, visiting China and
Malaysia to source the parts, while his mother managed the shop. His is just one of many
companies across the world assembling components from various sources - the booming
