It is pronounced as "jugaard" or "jugaardh" in Hindi, while in Punjabi it is spelled as jagaard.

Jugaad roughly corresponds to do-it-yourself (DIY) in the US, hacking in the UK, tapullo in Italy, zìzh? chuàngx?n (????) in China, Trick 17 in Germany, gambiarra in Brazil, système D. in France, or jua kali in Kenya; in addition, equivalent words within South Africa are ’n boer maak ’n plan in Afrikaans, izenzele in Zulu, iketsetse in Sotho and itirele in Tswana.

Jugaad can also refer to a quadricycle, a means of transportation in north India, made of wooden planks and old jeep parts, variously known as kuddukka and pietereda. However, jugaad could be used as a term for any low cost vehicle which typically costs around Rs. 50,000 (about US$800). Jugaads are powered by diesel engines originally intended to power agricultural irrigation pumps. They are known for poor brakes, and cannot go faster than about 60 km/h (37 mph). The vehicle often carries more than 20 people at a time in remote locations and poor road conditions. Today, a jugaad is one of the most cost-effective transportation solutions for rural Indians.

Though no statistical data is available, it is reported that there are a number of instances of failing brakes, requiring a passenger to jump off and manually apply a wooden block as a brake. As part of research for his 2013 book, Innovation and a Global Knowledge Economy in India, Thomas Birtchnell, a lecturer of Sustainable Communities at University of Wollongong, Australia, found that of 2,139 cases of road traffic casualties in 72 hours at J N Medical College hospital in Aligarh, 13.88% of pedestrian casualties were due to jugaad. It was stated by Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan that jugaads do not conform to the specifications of a Motor Vehicle under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.^[8] These vehicles hence do not have any vehicle registration plate and they are not registered with the Regional Transport Office (RTO). Hence, no road tax is paid on them, neither there exists any official count of such vehicles.

Jugaads are not officially recognized as road-worthy, and despite a few proposals to regulate them, vote-bank politics have trumped safety concerns. The improvised vehicles have now become rather popular as a means to transport all manner of burdens, from lumber to steel rods to school children.^[9] For safety reasons the government of India has officially banned jugaad vehicles.^[10]

A variant of the jugaad vehicle in Tamil Nadu in South India is the Meen Body Vandi. This roughly translates to "fish bed vehicle" because they originated among local fishermen who needed a quick and cheap transport system to transport fish. It is a motorized tri-wheeler (derived from the non-motorized variant)^[11] with a heavy-duty suspension and a motorcycle engine—typically recycled from Czech Yezdi or Enfield Bullet vehicles. Its origins are typical of other jugaadu innovations—dead fish are typically considered unhygienic, and vehicles that carry them cannot be typically used to carry anything else. Similar vehicles can be found throughout much of Southeast Asia.^[12]

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  Jugaad vehicle powered by an agricultural water pump engine

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  Jugaad engine being hand-started

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  Jugaad vehicle carrying passengers to a political rally in Agra, India

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  A non-motorized Meen Body Vandi jugaad-style improvised vehicle, in Tamil Nadu, India

• Frugal innovation
• Life hacking
• Rickshaw
• Tonga (carriage)
• Transport in India

Similar terms:

• Bodge, an English term of similar meaning
• Chind?gu, a Japanese term for deliberately "un-useful" inventions, created as a hobby and entertainment.
• Redneck Technology An American term of similar meaning for innovations or improvisation using locally available materials
• Gung-ho, a technique of guerilla industry employed at the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives in WWII
• Kludge, an American-English term of similar meaning
• System D in French, is a shorthand term that refers to a manner of responding to challenges that requires one to have the ability to think fast, to adapt, and to improvise when getting a job done