Imagine a farmer named Gopal Malhari Bhise. One day, while watching another man struggling to carry sacks of flour on his bicycle, he wondered: what if the bicycle could be used for more than just transportation? Soon, he dismantled the rear wheel of his bicycle and, using scrap materials, built a unique weeding device that allowed him to cultivate the land without a tractor or bullocks. This simple yet brilliant story is the perfect embodiment of the concept known as "jugaad".
Term"jugaad", which comes from Hindi, describes not just an improvised solution created from meager resources, but an entire philosophy. It is the art of doing more with less, finding opportunities in difficulties and turning limitations into advantages. It was originally a survival tactic on the streets of India, where washing machines were turned into yogurt makers. Today the principles Jugaad— flexibility, cost-effectiveness and inclusiveness — are being studied and implemented by global corporations such as Philips, Google and GE, seeing them as the key to innovation in the face of global economic instability.
Nowhere is this spirit more evident than in Nepal. A quiet revolution is unfolding in a country struggling with deep socioeconomic and geographic challenges. Faced with systemic inefficiencies and gaps in public services, ordinary citizens and grassroots innovators are applying the principles ofJugaad to create solutions that are often more effective, sustainable, and locally tailored than large-scale government programs. This report explores how this bottom-up ingenuity is not only solving everyday problems in energy, agriculture, waste management, and education, but also creating unique and viable business models from scratch.
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By Alpha Business MediaImagine a farmer named Gopal Malhari Bhise. One day, while watching another man struggling to carry sacks of flour on his bicycle, he wondered: what if the bicycle could be used for more than just transportation? Soon, he dismantled the rear wheel of his bicycle and, using scrap materials, built a unique weeding device that allowed him to cultivate the land without a tractor or bullocks. This simple yet brilliant story is the perfect embodiment of the concept known as "jugaad".
Term"jugaad", which comes from Hindi, describes not just an improvised solution created from meager resources, but an entire philosophy. It is the art of doing more with less, finding opportunities in difficulties and turning limitations into advantages. It was originally a survival tactic on the streets of India, where washing machines were turned into yogurt makers. Today the principles Jugaad— flexibility, cost-effectiveness and inclusiveness — are being studied and implemented by global corporations such as Philips, Google and GE, seeing them as the key to innovation in the face of global economic instability.
Nowhere is this spirit more evident than in Nepal. A quiet revolution is unfolding in a country struggling with deep socioeconomic and geographic challenges. Faced with systemic inefficiencies and gaps in public services, ordinary citizens and grassroots innovators are applying the principles ofJugaad to create solutions that are often more effective, sustainable, and locally tailored than large-scale government programs. This report explores how this bottom-up ingenuity is not only solving everyday problems in energy, agriculture, waste management, and education, but also creating unique and viable business models from scratch.