Jugaad Innovation by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, Simone Ahuja

INDIA IS SURPRISING THE WORLD ! A friend of mine ,who is an NRI & whose group has many NRIs, sent his thoughts Pasted below 👇
I have been tracking various social media groups and Internet forums which have millions of users from us over the world. As expected, the only topic of discussion everywhere these days is: Corona.
While most of the discussions are mostly about precautions and updates, a significant number of users have now started noticing the maturity with which India is handling this issue. What was till recently considered a third world nation, is now quickly gaining respect & recognition at the world stage.
Following are a few examples which illustrate how India is impressing the foreigners:
1) Firstly, and most importantly, many are impressed with Indian Govt's quick measures & proactive initiatives even at such initial stages. The reason for this appreciation is that in all other countries, despite the rapid rise in cases, their respective govts had been ignoring the issue, and some were even taking it casually. Whereas India is one of the very few nations where Govt has jumped into action to tackle at root level itself. This has impressed many foreigners, especially Americans.
2) The strong measures like strict lockdown & police bandobast in India is being appreciated by Europeans. The reason here is that Europe is usually a highly democratic continent where emphasis is more on giving flexibility to people. So, they find it a bit strange when they see news visuals of Indian police forcefully chasing out violators from the streets during the curfew. In fact, Italians have been highly impressed with scenes where Indian policemen have lathi charged violators, because the Italians know the severity of this issue, and hence they feel such ruthless strictness by Indian police is fully justified, and is in the best interest of larger public.
3) Many, especially Americans, are impressed with the calmness of Indians, who are not resorting to crazy hoarding of essentials despite a nationwide lockdown. For example, even now, most of the American stores are almost empty, and Americans are fighting against each other in stores over these issues & are on a Gun buying spree !. However, in India, everything seems to be running smoothly without any hoarding or shortages.
4) Almost everyone are impressed with the innovative methods used by Indians to follow social distancing. For example, the circles & boxes drawn using rangoli powder to ensure decent distance between people in queues at groceries, ATMs etc, have really impressed Europeans & Americans.
5) The world is clearly noticing how Indians are utilising their skills of jugaad to solve these tough problems. For instance, PM Modi's idea of turning train coaches into ICU wards , creating 10,000 bed mobile hospital and sending them to all parts of India over railway, has taken many by surprise, because it is so simple yet practical.
6) Low cost kits from Mylab, Low cost ventilators developed by Mahindra company's mechanical engineers. All these show Indian engineers are also rising to the occasion to help the health sector, with these innovative & affordable solutions. Everyone from across the world have been highly appreciative of these, and are now encouraging their own engineers to follow suit. Many startup’s have sprung up to invent low cost solutions
7) Public participation in India is something which has taken everyone by surprise. Probably because the usual perception about India in the west is that Indians are illiterate, careless, selfish, lazy etc. So, when they find Indians heeding to the leader's call for participation through different means like Janata curfew, cheering for health workers etc, so enthusiastically, it gives an impression that Indians really care for their nation, are serious about fighting this issue, etc.
8) Last, but not the least. Finally, India is emerging as a new powerhouse, thanks to a strong & trustworthy leadership. The clarity and focus with which Indian PM is tackling this issue seriously, has already started receiving accolades from all over. During this global crisis, when China is acting like a cheat, Europe is down to its knees, and America is running like a headless chicken, the words from Indian PM, in all the recent summits have been heartwarming and inspiring confidence. In some ways, PM Modi is now taking the role of a global leader, filling the vacuum, taking charge & guiding the world, just like how leaders like Abraham Lincoln had long ago filled leadership vacuum and inspired the world. This is something which rest of the world is also beginning to notice, and acknowledging the same. INDIA SURE IS SURPRISING THE WORLD !!

INDIA IS SURPRISING THE WORLD ! A friend of mine ,who is an NRI & whose group has many NRIs, sent his thoughts Pasted below 👇
I have been tracking various social media groups and Internet forums which have millions of users from us over the world. As expected, the only topic of discussion everywhere these days is: Corona.
While most of the discussions are mostly about precautions and updates, a significant number of users have now started noticing the maturity with which India is handling this issue. What was till recently considered a third world nation, is now quickly gaining respect & recognition at the world stage.
Following are a few examples which illustrate how India is impressing the foreigners:
1) Firstly, and most importantly, many are impressed with Indian Govt's quick measures & proactive initiatives even at such initial stages. The reason for this appreciation is that in all other countries, despite the rapid rise in cases, their respective govts had been ignoring the issue, and some were even taking it casually. Whereas India is one of the very few nations where Govt has jumped into action to tackle at root level itself. This has impressed many foreigners, especially Americans.
2) The strong measures like strict lockdown & police bandobast in India is being appreciated by Europeans. The reason here is that Europe is usually a highly democratic continent where emphasis is more on giving flexibility to people. So, they find it a bit strange when they see news visuals of Indian police forcefully chasing out violators from the streets during the curfew. In fact, Italians have been highly impressed with scenes where Indian policemen have lathi charged violators, because the Italians know the severity of this issue, and hence they feel such ruthless strictness by Indian police is fully justified, and is in the best interest of larger public.
3) Many, especially Americans, are impressed with the calmness of Indians, who are not resorting to crazy hoarding of essentials despite a nationwide lockdown. For example, even now, most of the American stores are almost empty, and Americans are fighting against each other in stores over these issues & are on a Gun buying spree !. However, in India, everything seems to be running smoothly without any hoarding or shortages.
4) Almost everyone are impressed with the innovative methods used by Indians to follow social distancing. For example, the circles & boxes drawn using rangoli powder to ensure decent distance between people in queues at groceries, ATMs etc, have really impressed Europeans & Americans.
5) The world is clearly noticing how Indians are utilising their skills of jugaad to solve these tough problems. For instance, PM Modi's idea of turning train coaches into ICU wards , creating 10,000 bed mobile hospital and sending them to all parts of India over railway, has taken many by surprise, because it is so simple yet practical.
6) Low cost kits from Mylab, Low cost ventilators developed by Mahindra company's mechanical engineers. All these show Indian engineers are also rising to the occasion to help the health sector, with these innovative & affordable solutions. Everyone from across the world have been highly appreciative of these, and are now encouraging their own engineers to follow suit. Many startup’s have sprung up to invent low cost solutions
7) Public participation in India is something which has taken everyone by surprise. Probably because the usual perception about India in the west is that Indians are illiterate, careless, selfish, lazy etc. So, when they find Indians heeding to the leader's call for participation through different means like Janata curfew, cheering for health workers etc, so enthusiastically, it gives an impression that Indians really care for their nation, are serious about fighting this issue, etc.
8) Last, but not the least. Finally, India is emerging as a new powerhouse, thanks to a strong & trustworthy leadership. The clarity and focus with which Indian PM is tackling this issue seriously, has already started receiving accolades from all over. During this global crisis, when China is acting like a cheat, Europe is down to its knees, and America is running like a headless chicken, the words from Indian PM, in all the recent summits have been heartwarming and inspiring confidence. In some ways, PM Modi is now taking the role of a global leader, filling the vacuum, taking charge & guiding the world, just like how leaders like Abraham Lincoln had long ago filled leadership vacuum and inspired the world. This is something which rest of the world is also beginning to notice, and acknowledging the same. INDIA SURE IS SURPRISING THE WORLD Jai hind 🇮🇳 !!

... in our lifetimes (EDIT 6)

1. Indians actively encourage mediocrity and shortcuts over expertise and refinement (jugaad).
   
2. Political connections are everything. Anyone wishing to progress has to gobble a bag of dicks. Trying to get work done without keeping political overlords in the loop WILL result in failure.
   
3. Conservatism to the point of fanaticism in every sphere of life and a consistent opposition to change, progress and new ideas.
   
4. Idolisation of imaginary ideals from mythology touted as past glories.
   
5. Blatant opposition to intellectualism and knowledge and idealisation of "hard work". (refer this)
   
6. Glorification of poverty and struggles faced due to frugality and the belief that only hardships can make a person noteworthy.
   
7. The common man feels entitled to receive everything for free just by the virtue of being born in this country. Indians are reluctant to pay for anything and justify not paying taxes with the most absurd of reasons.
   
8. The party offering the most freebies and the one that panders to the Least Common Denominator will win.
   
9. A huge population which is touted as an asset, but is, in fact, a MASSIVE liability due to the future looking optimistic for automation.
   
10. The education of this country is extremely mediocre at best and the literacy level is abysmally low. Both skilled and unskilled labour is not on par with what should have been. This is the main reason companies can get away with paying ridiculously low wages. The govt then touts this on the international stage as "cheap cost of manufacturing/services".
    

BONUS EDITS:
EDIT 1 The worship of authority figures rather than respecting authority. Indians will mentally box themselves into a rigid class system with anyone wielding even the most minuscule amount of power is seen as worthy of reverence. This master-slave mentality is so ingrained in us that we will overlook every flaw in a person and worship him/her with an almost fervent devotion. This entrenched sycophancy in our mindset prevents us from thinking of innovation and keeps us satisfied with the status quo. (ghantesh and mrfreeze2000)
EDIT 2 Indians, as a rule, cannot exhibit common decency, patience or discipline in public. They will always cut in line, swear at strangers, litter and will not hesitate to get confrontational. (goddamit_iamwasted)
EDIT 3 Indians are happy with the status quo and do not demand enough from their government. In most govt departments, doing the bare minimum is considered as an achievement and going above and beyond the call of duty is scoffed upon. All ruling governments encourage this status quo as it keeps them in the advantageous position of being able to shift goalposts. (sIlentr3b3l)
EDIT 4 A skewed sense of morality which is used as an excuse to not pay taxes and the hypocrisy in pointing fingers at others as a means of justification of said crimes. (Vijaywada)
EDIT 5 The clash of ideologies between people who point out flaws in the country, and the people who point out the flaws in the complaints of the people who are pointing out flaws. (agingmonster)

At the outset, I would like to state that this is not an essay that is critical of India or its people in any way. I am merely stating what I have observed and what I have concluded based on these observations. For this is the unvarnished truth. And India cannot palate the truth.
Socrates, the father of Western thought, often spoke of a concept called Thumos. Thumos was very much a Greek concept. An abstract concept that held many meanings and translations. However, this concept has been lost to humanity and no literal translation exists in English. The essence of ‘Thumos’ can probably be summed up by the saying – “When making a decision, a man is faced with two choices. An easy path and a tough path. The easy path leads to barbarism. The tough to civilization". And it is this tough road that every society must traverse to reach a peak. Taking the tougher road is an informed decision, for the natural impulse of every man is to take the easy path. He has to consciously take the tougher path, and avoid the easy. However, a man might unknowingly go down the easy path and end up where he did not want to be. Retracing your steps back to the tougher path is often a thankless and sometimes nigh on impossible task. Most men do not make it. India too, is at this cross roads today. And we might not make it.
It is indeed, ironic then, that I started this essay about the decline of ‘Indian civilization’ with a concept borrowed from the West. This is not to show that Indian philosophy has not reached the high levels of thought to have such a concept, but to merely show how far we have strayed from it. Make no such mistake. For the Vedas, the ultimate repository of Indian philosophy, were written long, long before Socrates’ ancestors even took up the plough and decided to grow the weeds they had observed in the wild and gave them nourishment. We had reached unimaginable highs and fallen from those highs, long before Socrates even had his first coherent thought. All Socrates did then, was re-discover what we had already known. We were superior in all respects. And it is in this very attitude, that lies the seed of our destruction. How many times have you heard your elders say – “Indian culture is the best. Anything associated with the West is bad!”. I hear it all the time. It is a constant din in our ears. Anything associated with the West is decadent and immoral and inferior. And Indian culture is superior to every other culture, past, present and future. Well then, superior in exactly what manner?? Few, if any, gave a concrete answer to this question. If they gave an answer at all.
The most common response to my question was anger and a rebuke for asking too many questions. How then are we superior? IF we are superior at all? Let us look around the world today and ask ourselves, “How many of the concepts, ideas, and objects that I use in my daily life on a day-to-day basis emerged from purely indigenous sources?” I asked myself this question many times, over and over again. The conclusion was the same everytime. None. To further clarify this point, let us look at the last invention of consequence which had a purely Oriental origin. Gunpowder. And this too was taken up and advanced by the West. If the Chinese invented Gunpowder, it was the West that developed the cannons that used them. Indeed, there is nothing that we can call truly our own except the past. And as all of us have seen, we revere the past. It is drummed into us in our schools, in our universities, in our families and at the dinner table. Indian culture always was and is, miles ahead of the decadent and corrupt influences of the West. It is not. This assertion is nothing but an inferiority complex. And an aversion to the truth.
It is important to realize that I am not saying that India or Indian culture is inferior or all that we developed as a civilization is a fabrication. It is not a fabrication. We were indeed a highly advanced civilization, and a highly cultured one at that. But we were, and not are. What we are now is a mish mash of cultures that does not know where it is headed.
How did we then fall so low? How did we, we who had reached highs that even now are only dreamt of, fall to the very depths from where these highs are unimaginable? It is tempting to blame the West, colonialism, British rule and all that. But the problem lies much deeper than that.
Every empire is built on one strength. One strength that sets it apart from the neighbours and allows it to grow while others around it stagnate. The Roman empire was built on the discipline of its Legions. Most armies of that time were little more than unruly mobs and this proverbial discipline of the Roman Legion made it a formidable attacking force. The British Empire was built on the strength of the trade links between Britain, a small insignificant island, and its vast territorial holdings in every corner of this planet. The dominant empire today is the USA. This empire is a little different. For its strength stems from its culture. Right from Hollywood, to sitcoms, our thought processes and ideas, to even what we eat and wear, it is the cultural power of the USA in full show. Every empire in history has had its one strength. And India too had a cultural empire similar to what the USA has today. A thousand years ago, students flocked from all over the world to study at Nalanda and Taxila. Just as they flock to the USA today. Great ideas were born in this crucible of free thought. Religions, philosophies and sciences were established by enlightened souls. Just as they are being established in the USA today. However, all empires must fall. The Roman empire fell when the discipline of its legions eroded. The British empire fell when its trade links could no longer be kept captive to serve them alone. The cultural empire of the USA is ripe to fall even as I write this. And the Indian empire has already fallen. A thousand years ago India was the USA of the age. Not any more. Today this cultural empire has eroded until all we have left is a kind of cultural hubris. And hubris, as we all know, is a fine quality. Often found in those who perish from it.
The strength of Indian civilization was always in its openness to new ideas. And a willingness to put in the hard work to further those ideas. Today however, we have neither the openness to new ideas, nor the will to work hard. Take for example the resistance to ‘Westernization’. Does it not speak of a reluctance to embrace new ideas and concepts? This hardening of opinions and closing of minds is prevalent not only in resisting outside influences and ‘preserving Indian culture’, but also in every detail of our lives. A teacher in India does not like it if his student questions him. For in that question, lies the seed of a new idea. And in that seed, lies the implication that the teacher may be wrong. And that is why we Indians do not like someone who asks too many questions, as I found out to my cost when I questioned India’s supposed cultural superiority.
A far more dangerous symptom however, is our instinctive reluctance to work hard for what we want. Our instinctive impulse to take a shortcut. Our instinctive reflex to take the easy road. Here I come back to the opening statement of this essay. “The easy path leads to barbarism. The tough to civilization”. The tough road is often a tedious path. And in India, this road is often avoided in favour of the easy. Jugaad. It is nothing but a shortcut. And we as a nation, nay, as a civilization have become addicted to shortcuts. And hence we have fallen. Everything in India can be resolved by a shortcut. If you stand in a queue, there is always a tout who will be happy to help you jump the line for a fee. Instead of paying your taxes, it is far easier to just hide your income under your bed. Why wait for the light to change from red to green when there is no one crossing your path? Why be orderly when you can be disorderly and get away with it? Why work hard when you can steal from someone? Why be polite when you do not have to be? Why throw the garbage into the dustbin when someone is there to collect it from any spot in the city? I could go on and on. Everything in India has a shortcut. And this culture of taking shortcuts has struck root in the very mindset of our society. Every single thing is now a shortcut. Jugaad. Why take the tougher road to civilization? Why apply our minds when someone else can do it? It is easier to run away to the West than stay back and make this country worth living in. Why perform original research in India where you have to build your own apparatus, when you can just hop across the pond and perform that same research in the West, where that same apparatus can be bought off the shelf? Why? Why indeed? Because, it is the short cut. It is the easy path. And it shall lead us to barbarism. It is not an individual failing on the part of Indians. I will not blame any one person for this. It is a failing of our society. Indeed, it is a historical inevitability.
Historical inevitability? Yes, our decline was inevitable. Every great civilization has declined when its culture of openness is replaced by closed minds and an aversion to questions. Look at Islam a thousand year ago and today. If at all anyone dares to interpret the quoran any way other than the accepted dogma, he is immediately met with a fatwa calling for his beheading. Western civilization has flourished and prospered precisely because it has cast off the yoke that is the Catholic church and allowed free thought. This freedom of thought does remain in India, but only in vestiges. And as we have already seen, it is being gradually eroded. It is historical inevitability. The point is further clarified by a study of entropy. Entropy, in layman’s terms, is a measure of the disorderliness in a system. In any spontaneous process, Entropy always increases. So if we consider human history to be a spontaneous process, interspersed by periods where Man has consciously tried to improve himself, it is not difficult to see how every rise is followed by a fall. As I have already stated, taking the tougher road is an informed decision, while the easy path comes spontaneously. Every civilization at some point, will abandon the long tough road, to take the short cut. And when a society starts taking shortcuts, it begins to decline. Every civilization has declined and so shall we.
And so we have declined. Our fall has only begun. And we shall keep falling, for a long, long time. Is there nothing that can be done? I do not know. The only thing that can be done is the administration of a shock treatment. A shock treatment that so drastically affects us that we will be forced to change for the better. The Black Death in the 14th century jolted Europe and gave rise to the Renaissance, which laid the foundation for the current dominance of Western civilization. Kemal Mustafa Ataturk’s radical measures of Westernization and his suppression of anything connected with the decadence of the Ottoman empire, gave rise to Modern Turkey. A nation that is a beacon of hope for the Muslim world. What kind of shock treatment can reverse the tide of India’s decline? I do not know. But the least we can do, is acknowledge that we have a problem. And when you see the problem and the scale of it, it will give you the shock treatment.
TL;DR - We are in decline because our culture has lost its ability to question and innovate. We also prefer shortcuts. It is a historical inevitability and there is nothing we can do about it.

At the outset, I would like to state that this is not an essay that is critical of India or its people in any way. I am merely stating what I have observed and what I have concluded based on these observations. For this is the unvarnished truth. And India cannot palate the truth.
My personal example on the reluctance to work hard: it is not just that, we lack ethics and morals too.
I know I am going to ruffle a few feathers as there are a lot of people from the US here. I am a grad student in the US(working towards my Ph.D), and most of friends here in the US are working in IT related jobs. What is worrying is that most of he these people got the jobs through consultants, who fake everything thing - from fake resumes to even fake phone interviews. I mean these are 22-23 YO with an experience of 8 years. I agree that the companies don't care much about contracts jobs, but the people who work should have a sense of responsibility. 80% of my undergrad friends are working in this manner. Their defence is that 'we spend so much money on education, it is only fair to earn and this is the easiest way we can earn good money."
I never intrude into others' personal decisions, but this is really bothering me. We buy the newest Japanese and Germany cars in a flash, yet pirate songs and movies. We bitch about the state of politics, yet we behave the same way.. even worse in some cases that public servants.
We lack even the basic of ethics, we litter everywhere, drive like lunatics(we can't even give way to ambulances) and are pretty inconsiderate of others overall. More than my disdain for politics, I am pretty annoyed by the behavior normal people.
I am not saying that I am a perfect person, at least I am being honest to myself and even though I am being paid peanuts and under a lot of pressure from my parents, I am enjoying my student life. I am just sad that many people don't have and share good values.
The Indian brain, is a phrase I have been hearing since I was a kid. Having been a PhD candidate, and seeing how India's best and brightest compared to the world's was an eye-opener for me. Sure my fellow Indians too won best paper awards and fellowships, but the average of originality & creativity was far higher in some of our Western counterparts.
The difference becomes even more stark, when one compares the contributions and achievements of Ashkenazi Jews (American or Israeli) to those of Indians. A persecuted minority of a few millions have contributed many orders more when compared to India's privileged academic contributors- say Tamil Brahmins. Of course it is worse when compared to Indians as a whole. What is striking is that the difference holds true even when comparing in a different field like business/ finance and contrasting with Gujrati/ Marwaris.
I am not exactly a self-hating Indian, and am moderately proud of Indian achievement when compared to some of our neighbors. But that is where it unfortunately ends.
I recently moved southwards in the Bay Area- from Palo Alto/ Mountain View to Santa Clara/ San Jose. I dropped out of my PhD and now run a moderately successful startup with some burn rate, and wanted to save some dough as we are in the process of raising money. And my new residence[1] almost wants me to start hating Indians. The Indian food is far better here, but most Indians seem to be of the variety you describe- consultancy or menial tech jobs. They are clannish, semi-dumb and almost seem to be proud of their mediocrity. FML & I can't wait to move to SF.
[1] for those who are not aware, these areas are far more Indian populated. Though I have seen seen something similar when I visited a friend in New Jersey.
Socrates, the father of Western thought, often spoke of a concept called Thumos. Thumos was very much a Greek concept. An abstract concept that held many meanings and translations. However, this concept has been lost to humanity and no literal translation exists in English. The essence of ‘Thumos’ can probably be summed up by the saying – “When making a decision, a man is faced with two choices. An easy path and a tough path. The easy path leads to barbarism. The tough to civilization". And it is this tough road that every society must traverse to reach a peak. Taking the tougher road is an informed decision, for the natural impulse of every man is to take the easy path. He has to consciously take the tougher path, and avoid the easy. However, a man might unknowingly go down the easy path and end up where he did not want to be. Retracing your steps back to the tougher path is often a thankless and sometimes nigh on impossible task. Most men do not make it. India too, is at this cross roads today. And we might not make it.
It is indeed, ironic then, that I started this essay about the decline of ‘Indian civilization’ with a concept borrowed from the West. This is not to show that Indian philosophy has not reached the high levels of thought to have such a concept, but to merely show how far we have strayed from it. Make no such mistake. For the Vedas, the ultimate repository of Indian philosophy, were written long, long before Socrates’ ancestors even took up the plough and decided to grow the weeds they had observed in the wild and gave them nourishment. We had reached unimaginable highs and fallen from those highs, long before Socrates even had his first coherent thought. All Socrates did then, was re-discover what we had already known. We were superior in all respects. And it is in this very attitude, that lies the seed of our destruction. How many times have you heard your elders say – “Indian culture is the best. Anything associated with the West is bad!”. I hear it all the time. It is a constant din in our ears. Anything associated with the West is decadent and immoral and inferior. And Indian culture is superior to every other culture, past, present and future. Well then, superior in exactly what manner?? Few, if any, gave a concrete answer to this question. If they gave an answer at all.
The most common response to my question was anger and a rebuke for asking too many questions. How then are we superior? IF we are superior at all? Let us look around the world today and ask ourselves, “How many of the concepts, ideas, and objects that I use in my daily life on a day-to-day basis emerged from purely indigenous sources?” I asked myself this question many times, over and over again. The conclusion was the same everytime. None. To further clarify this point, let us look at the last invention of consequence which had a purely Oriental origin. Gunpowder. And this too was taken up and advanced by the West. If the Chinese invented Gunpowder, it was the West that developed the cannons that used them. Indeed, there is nothing that we can call truly our own except the past. And as all of us have seen, we revere the past. It is drummed into us in our schools, in our universities, in our families and at the dinner table. Indian culture always was and is, miles ahead of the decadent and corrupt influences of the West. It is not. This assertion is nothing but an inferiority complex. And an aversion to the truth.
It is important to realize that I am not saying that India or Indian culture is inferior or all that we developed as a civilization is a fabrication. It is not a fabrication. We were indeed a highly advanced civilization, and a highly cultured one at that. But we were, and not are. What we are now is a mish mash of cultures that does not know where it is headed.
How did we then fall so low? How did we, we who had reached highs that even now are only dreamt of, fall to the very depths from where these highs are unimaginable? It is tempting to blame the West, colonialism, British rule and all that. But the problem lies much deeper than that.
Every empire is built on one strength. One strength that sets it apart from the neighbours and allows it to grow while others around it stagnate. The Roman empire was built on the discipline of its Legions. Most armies of that time were little more than unruly mobs and this proverbial discipline of the Roman Legion made it a formidable attacking force. The British Empire was built on the strength of the trade links between Britain, a small insignificant island, and its vast territorial holdings in every corner of this planet. The dominant empire today is the USA. This empire is a little different. For its strength stems from its culture. Right from Hollywood, to sitcoms, our thought processes and ideas, to even what we eat and wear, it is the cultural power of the USA in full show. Every empire in history has had its one strength. And India too had a cultural empire similar to what the USA has today. A thousand years ago, students flocked from all over the world to study at Nalanda and Taxila. Just as they flock to the USA today. Great ideas were born in this crucible of free thought. Religions, philosophies and sciences were established by enlightened souls. Just as they are being established in the USA today. However, all empires must fall. The Roman empire fell when the discipline of its legions eroded. The British empire fell when its trade links could no longer be kept captive to serve them alone. The cultural empire of the USA is ripe to fall even as I write this. And the Indian empire has already fallen. A thousand years ago India was the USA of the age. Not any more. Today this cultural empire has eroded until all we have left is a kind of cultural hubris. And hubris, as we all know, is a fine quality. Often found in those who perish from it.
The strength of Indian civilization was always in its openness to new ideas. And a willingness to put in the hard work to further those ideas. Today however, we have neither the openness to new ideas, nor the will to work hard. Take for example the resistance to ‘Westernization’. Does it not speak of a reluctance to embrace new ideas and concepts? This hardening of opinions and closing of minds is prevalent not only in resisting outside influences and ‘preserving Indian culture’, but also in every detail of our lives. A teacher in India does not like it if his student questions him. For in that question, lies the seed of a new idea. And in that seed, lies the implication that the teacher may be wrong. And that is why we Indians do not like someone who asks too many questions, as I found out to my cost when I questioned India’s supposed cultural superiority.
A far more dangerous symptom however, is our instinctive reluctance to work hard for what we want. Our instinctive impulse to take a shortcut. Our instinctive reflex to take the easy road. Here I come back to the opening statement of this essay. “The easy path leads to barbarism. The tough to civilization”. The tough road is often a tedious path. And in India, this road is often avoided in favour of the easy. Jugaad. It is nothing but a shortcut. And we as a nation, nay, as a civilization have become addicted to shortcuts. And hence we have fallen. Everything in India can be resolved by a shortcut. If you stand in a queue, there is always a tout who will be happy to help you jump the line for a fee. Instead of paying your taxes, it is far easier to just hide your income under your bed. Why wait for the light to change from red to green when there is no one crossing your path? Why be orderly when you can be disorderly and get away with it? Why work hard when you can steal from someone? Why be polite when you do not have to be? Why throw the garbage into the dustbin when someone is there to collect it from any spot in the city? I could go on and on. Everything in India has a shortcut. And this culture of taking shortcuts has struck root in the very mindset of our society. Every single thing is now a shortcut. Jugaad. Why take the tougher road to civilization? Why apply our minds when someone else can do it? It is easier to run away to the West than stay back and make this country worth living in. Why perform original research in India where you have to build your own apparatus, when you can just hop across the pond and perform that same research in the West, where that same apparatus can be bought off the shelf? Why? Why indeed? Because, it is the short cut. It is the easy path. And it shall lead us to barbarism. It is not an individual failing on the part of Indians. I will not blame any one person for this. It is a failing of our society. Indeed, it is a historical inevitability.
Historical inevitability? Yes, our decline was inevitable. Every great civilization has declined when its culture of openness is replaced by closed minds and an aversion to questions. Look at Islam a thousand year ago and today. If at all anyone dares to interpret the quoran any way other than the accepted dogma, he is immediately met with a fatwa calling for his beheading. Western civilization has flourished and prospered precisely because it has cast off the yoke that is the Catholic church and allowed free thought. This freedom of thought does remain in India, but only in vestiges. And as we have already seen, it is being gradually eroded. It is historical inevitability. The point is further clarified by a study of entropy. Entropy, in layman’s terms, is a measure of the disorderliness in a system. In any spontaneous process, Entropy always increases. So if we consider human history to be a spontaneous process, interspersed by periods where Man has consciously tried to improve himself, it is not difficult to see how every rise is followed by a fall. As I have already stated, taking the tougher road is an informed decision, while the easy path comes spontaneously. Every civilization at some point, will abandon the long tough road, to take the short cut. And when a society starts taking shortcuts, it begins to decline. Every civilization has declined and so shall we.
And so we have declined. Our fall has only begun. And we shall keep falling, for a long, long time. Is there nothing that can be done? I do not know. The only thing that can be done is the administration of a shock treatment. A shock treatment that so drastically affects us that we will be forced to change for the better. The Black Death in the 14th century jolted Europe and gave rise to the Renaissance, which laid the foundation for the current dominance of Western civilization. Kemal Mustafa Ataturk’s radical measures of Westernization and his suppression of anything connected with the decadence of the Ottoman empire, gave rise to Modern Turkey. A nation that is a beacon of hope for the Muslim world. What kind of shock treatment can reverse the tide of India’s decline? I do not know. But the least we can do, is acknowledge that we have a problem. And when you see the problem and the scale of it, it will give you the shock treatment.
TL;DR - We are in decline because our culture has lost its ability to question and innovate. We also prefer shortcuts. It is a historical inevitability and there is nothing we can do about it.

Indians are mostly morally corrupt, lazy and dirty. Lets put together a list of ways Indians game the system. I suspect there would be thin line between this and jugaad. Lets keep jugaad out of discussion. I will start
1) 2 wheelers driving on footpath/ wrong side to avoid traffic jams and save time
2) Gaming the e-commerce website return policies. Think Bangalore lady looting 70 lakhs
3) Students cheating in exams using innovative ways, plagiarizing projects, assignments, research, thesis
4) Copying popular song beats of west
5) Copying funded startup ideas of west
6) Faking documents - Marksheet, degree, rent agreement, landlord pan for HRA, pollution certificate
7) Giving/ receiving bribes to get things done
8) Torrenting, pirating movies, tv serials (ouch!)
9) Not declaring income and Not paying income tax
10) Wasting tax payers money
.. What is your list? I will add them here.

(Submission to the New Shape Prize by Jorge I. Bonilla L.)

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“A stitch in time saves nine”- when you resolve the problem immediately it may save undue efforts.
By ignoring formal education one might still qualify as an event manager but ignoring cognitive skills might not qualify him as the best event manager.The event manager is swamped through unseen and unexpected problems during an event.But a good event manager has a tendency to recuperate any fragile event by applying his “Jugaad” tactics or ingenuity under any circumstances.
The word “Jugaad” means a quick patch to any problem or issues, few like to call it as a“short-cut”. The word was less familiar to the world unless aSeminar in Chicago by PCMA on Frugal Innovative Approach for Events elicited its advantages.
It emerged from India and now popular around the globe but with different names---- Brazilians call it gambiarra; the Chinese, zizhu chuangxin; and the Kenyans, jua kali and so on. With shrinking economy, “Jugaad” approach is getting better and better responses especially from countries having the higher growth economy.
Coming out with a novel solution in adverse condition is the pedigree of human race and that's what describes ““Jugaad” the best.It pushes human intelligence to think out of the trend that sometimes appears witty and humorous but work quite effectively, especially when the source is scant or minimum to complete the task.
When you swirl into the “Jugaadu” situation your reserve neurons get activated and tells you- “Hey there is no need of doing things in one way”. Soon your brain picks up the best solution to neutralize the issue. There is always a way out to encounter any problem, possibly the approaches may be different. For instance, 3+2 is also 5 and 4+1 is also 5.
There are the countless epitome of “Jugaadu” work that you might have heard like - a solar based bicycle, an earthen-ware cooler or water purifier, a motorcycle operated water pump, ammonia and water based lamp, etc. Even you might have fixed numerous domestic crisis using the same approach like water dripping from faucet, broken specs frame, extending remote battery life, crossing-over a rainy puddle, with some basic skills and handful of local appliances. I guess this qualifies you as Jugaadians.
There is no apprenticeship program or registered training to be a Jugaadian, this is something you nurture over time by observing and following your gut feeling with some blend of intelligence.
Being Jugaadians from Event Perspective
Event Industry is huge and managing an event is a big task. Preparing yourself for last moment changes and solving unexpected issues in the event is not an event manager’s choice but a protocol.
Below mentioned are few characteristics you must abide to be on the rim of successful event managers.
Principles of “Jugaad”
1) Seek opportunity in adversity
There is a famous quote “out of adversity comes opportunity”. Tapping on favorable condition is not always going to happen in events. Sometimes capitalizing on the given situation is the ideal solution. For example, you have to hold an event in a ground having deep pot-hole, then you can probably use the pot-hole in your favour – maybe by creating a fountain around it or a smoking zone for attendees or even a campfire setting around it.
2) Do more with less
Shoestring budget and meeting client expectation without compromising is often a scenario in Events.In such situation, adapting to frugal approach like replacing poster or banner with digital signage that can be reused again is more preferable than getting roasted on your limited resources.There is also a possibility that you are not using resources completely, by using it profoundly you can optimize the resource and can do more with less.
3) Think and act flexibly
To get away with Jugaads, you have to be proactive than reactive. It is just like a rapid fire round-- spontaneous and witty. During outdoor events if rain is not part of your backup plan then provide temporary sheds to guests where they quickly snug in and brag about the weather with the glass of champagne. If the event is on a small scale, then tapping and twining a foldable tent can be your anti-rain “Jugaad”.
4) Keep it simple
Jugaad work doesn't demand high technical arrangement but instead a simple design for time-being that meets the purpose. For instance in an event, if showcasing all the product manually at the same time is an issue, you can use a rotational stand instead. This should save your money spent on hiring another stall, at the same time it is easy to display the items.
5) Tap the margins of society
Jugaadu tricks so far were applied only to a domestic or at alower level but entrepreneurs Jugaad innovators have the broad perspective on it. They pulled it off as a mainstream business idea. To execute them it becomes necessary that you understand customers need and identify the product prospects from customer’s point of view. For example, a bicycle attached with a wheelchair could be a great value to give a park-ride to someone who is physically challenged or an aged person.
6) Finally follow your heart
For a good reason, we are gifted with a heart that is not just refrained to our body anatomy but referred to our emotional intelligence and basic instinct. Jugaad innovators have to take decisions not formerly based on research but what their customers feel about the product or their ideas.
Jugaad Innovators are today’s Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, their ideas can be a game-changer, where entrepreneurs can revive the squeezed economy by turning their ideas into business models.
Let us know what “Jugaad” you know that stands for the best!

Vigilantism. The police has shown again and again that it isn't capable of preventing gang-rapes from happening. Reasons for these are many but one thing that can't be denied is that we really don't have enough policemen. What if instead of protesting, which is of course a noble thing to do, young people of Delhi and other city formed vigilante groups and roamed the streets during the dark hours. Needless to say government should actually encourage night life instead of curbing it like they have done in Bangalore and allow commercial establishments to be open as late as possible. More people on streets means less chances of such things happening. I would at least hope that most of us are good and there are just a few bad apples.
I am not saying that everything I noted above is right. Neither am I saying, that is the only solution. Even I can see multiple flaws in that plan. My intention here is to start a discussion, because I believe the Indian jugaad will surely give us a simple and elegant solution to this abhorrent phenomena. We have succeed in finding innovative faults in AAP and BJP in last few days. Why not attempt and find a solution once. And no, banning things and curbing liberties are not solutions; they only exacerbate the problem.