‘Youth Should Work 70-Hours A Week’: Narayana Murthy Suggests Change In India’s Work Culture; Internet Divided

When asked about his vision for the next 10, 15 years, Narayana Murthy highlighted a need to improve productivity in India and sort out the government delays.

New Delhi: Infosys founder Narayana Murthy believes that if India wants to compete with economies that have made tremendous progress in the last two to three decades, then the youth will have to step up productivity and work hard, to the extent of even 70 hours a week. Speaking on the inaugural episode of 3one4 Capital’s podcast ‘The Record,’ Murthy stressed the urgency of changing India’s work productivity. He argued that unless India’s youth commit to significantly more working hours, the country will struggle to catch up with economies that have seen remarkable progress over the past few decades.

When asked about his vision for the next 10, 15 years, Narayana Murthy highlighted a need to improve productivity in India and sort out the government delays.  To bridge the gap with countries such as China, he drew parallels to Japan and Germany, which, post-World War II, encouraged their recoveries by fixing a culture of extended working hours and dedication.

In a conversation with CFO Mohandas Pai, Murthy said, “If we want to compete with the fastest growing countries like China and Japan, we need to boost up our work productivity. India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. 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.”

“So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week,” Murthy said, adding that 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 it is very important for our youngsters to transform since they form a “significant majority of our population” and “are the ones who can build our country”.

“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,” Mr Narayana Murthy added.

Social media divided

His comments sparked a debate among users on social media with some users not taking Narayana Murthy’s ‘suggestion’ well citing different salaries at different levels. Some even claimed that Infosys doesn’t have a very good record in offering ‘right’ salaries, and that more efforts at work demand better payments.

Others defended Narayana Murthy’s view and explained that the Infosys co-founder is speaking from a wider vision where India’s growth is a priority. Some even called 70 hours work a week ‘normal’ considering the rising startup culture in India, which demands more hours at work.

Ola Cabs co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal seconded Narayana Murthy’s viewpoint and said ‘it’s our moment to go all in and build in one generation what other countries built over many generations.’

“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!,” Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal said in a post on X.

Some entrepreneurs also disagreed with Murthy’s opinion and said it’s more about getting better at what one does as the quality of work is more valuable than putting in more hours. “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,” upGrad founder Ronnie Screwvala said in a post.