How disruptive is frugal?

Global warming and the recent financial crises have prompted a rethink among businesses on the production of cost-effective products and services. Frugal-innovations, with their genesis mainly in India, are accordingly becoming popular in emerging and developed economies due to their lower costs and no frills structure. By studying a variety of frugal-innovations, this effort brings out the features of these innovations and also examines their disruptiveness vis-à-vis other innovations. Furthermore, this paper has formalized the frugal-innovation process based on examples covered in this effort. Such a formalization will aid in the metamorphosis of an ordinary innovation into the frugal type.