Infosys founder Narayana Murthy wants Indian youth to work 70 hours a week

'We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can poor government do?' Infosys founder Murthy said in a podcast

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Infosys founder Narayana Murthy has said that India's work culture needs to change, and youngsters here should be ready to work 70 hours a week to make the country competitive globally.

In an interview with Mohandas Pai on 3one4 Capital's podcast "The Record", Murthy said that India needs to improve productivity in India and work on government delays.

"Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government at some level, because we have been reading, I don't know the truth of it unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking this decision, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress," he said.

"So, therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say 'This is my country. I would like to work 70 hours a week'," he added.

He also drew parallels with the work conditions in Germany and Japan after World War II.

"This is exactly what the Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War...they made sure that every German worked extra hours for a certain number of years," he said.

"We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can poor government do? And every government is as good as the culture of the people. And our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hard-working people," Murthy added.

Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal supports Murthy

Amid polarised views on the social media post-Murthy's comments, Ola's co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal took to X to support him. In a post, he said, "Totally agree with Mr Murthy's views. It's not our moment to work less and entertain ourselves. Rather it's our moment to go all in and build in 1 generation what other countries have built over many generations!"

upGrad's Ronnie Screwvala disagrees

upGrad founder Ronnie Screwvala, however, disagreed. In a separate post, he said, "Boosting productivity isn't just about working longer hours. It's about getting better at what you do - Upskilling, having a positive work environment, and fair pay for the work done. Quality of work done > clocking in more hours."

Shree Cement's Hari Mohan Bangur says it's an individual choice

Hari Mohan Bangur, chairman of Shree Cement said, "Roughly, 10,000 hours of work is required to learn the trade and 20,000 hours to become a master of the trade. But how soon one wants to get there should be left to the individual...everybody should have a choice." 

JSW Group's Sajjan Jindal says this generation and the next must sacrifice for the future

Sajjan Jindal, chairman and MD of JSW Group said, "India needs to work hard to become a developed nation by 2047, therefore this generation and the next must sacrifice for the future ones. All the countries who have gone to 4 days a week are the ones whose earlier generations have worked very hard to let them enjoy 4 days work. My father worked all 7 days for 12-14 hours a day, I work 10 hours a day for 6 days at least but I don't expect my son to put in that much."