Narayana Murthy urges youngsters to work 70 hours a week

Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy stirred a little storm on X when he said young people should work 70 hours a week to level up the country’s productivity.

Photograph: ANI Photo

In a conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai in the inaugural episode of 3one4 Capital’s podcast ‘The Record,’ Murthy said that youngsters should put extra hours at work to compete with leading economies.

“India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity…we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress,” he said, comparing India with China, Japan and Germany.

“So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week,” he added.

Murthy’s remarks were lambasted for apparently promoting an “overwork culture” by some, and praised by few others for trying to stoke the young ones into action.

Indian comedian and actor Vir Das wrote on X, “Life’s hard. You meet a girl, fall in love, get married.

“Her dad wants you to work 70 hours a week. You can’t work that hard, you just wanna chill and run England.”

Another user on X said “overwork” gave him stress and health complications.

“Overwork gave me a heart attack at 38.

“And a lifetime dependency on medicines! Please don’t listen to these people.

“Bloodsucking leeches who sit on their high chairs giving lectures,” he said.

Many people have also supported Murthy’s statement and said it shows dedication towards taking India ahead.

“I wholeheartedly endorse Mr. Narayan Murthy’s statement.

“It’s not about burnout, it’s about dedication.

“We have to make India an economic superpower that we can all be proud of in India 2047.

“A 5-day week culture is not what a rapidly developing nation of our size needs,” Sajjan Jindal, chairman, JSW Group, said.

Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO, Ola Cabs, also posted saying, “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!”