Jugaad is a vital element of Indian entrepreneurship. Depending on whom you ask, you get different definitions of jugaad. Improvisation. Making do. Resourcefulness. I like Ratan Tata’s definition of “frugal innovation” because jugaad arises from constraints, scarcity and competition. Tata Nano might be tacky to some but there is no denying the ingenuity involved in building world’s cheapest car. Confronted by limited budget, mouthshut.com came up with the strategy of using auto rickshaws for advertising. There are many such admirable examples of jugaad. However, at times, dishonest acts are justified, even glorified, as being in the spirit of jugaad.

Here is another way to look at it. Everything isn’t black or white, right or wrong – sometimes there shades of gray. It’s just that the gray area is very narrow for the honest and very broad for the corrupt. Many acts that appear black to the honest appear gray to the corrupt (my attempt at a schematic below). Jugaad is one of the labels the corrupt use to stretch the gray band. (Other labels used for this purpose are “Ends justify means” and variations of the word “Shrewd”.)

Let us hand out applause for jugaad after careful consideration. We do not want to encourage disguised dishonesty.