Kunal Shah, the founder of fintech firm CRED, believes that no big achievement can come from "work-life balance" and that India has imbibed the Western concepts of a 'chill life' before becoming a developed nation. "I am not saying it is not a choice you should not make - it is a personal choice. But as a country, we have to go a long way," he said in a podcast hosted by Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal.
Kunal Shah's remarks are somewhat similar to what Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said a few days ago when he asked youngsters to work harder if they wanted to see India compete with China and become number one or two in terms of GDP.
"We see an extraordinary execution (in China). It's called 9-9-6 culture - 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. And you see that progress. We cannot have the ambition of being a 10-20 trillion dollar economy and still expect that life should be chill," the CRED founder said, adding that India is a classic country that is confused.
In a podcast aired last week, Murthy said that India’s work productivity was among the lowest in the world and that in order to compete with countries like China, the country's youngsters must put in extra hours of work as Japan and Germany did after World War II. He said youngsters should work for 70 hours a week, which is 14 hours a day in a 5-day week.
The tech titan, in a conversation with former Infosys Mohandas Pai, said unless India improves its work productivity, it will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress in the past few decades.
"So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week," he 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."
Murthy's suggestion for longer work hours triggered a massive debate, with some backing the veteran entrepreneur while others disagreeing with him. While Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal backed Murthy saying it was not the moment to work less and entertain ourselves, Marico founder Harsh Mariwala said it was not about the hours clocked in but the quality and passion one brought to those hours.
While that debate still goes on, the CRED founder has hailed China's 9-9-6 culture - which is 72 hours a week. Shah also referred to athletes and suggested they do not think about work-life balance to win medals. "Look at the Asian Games, we have won the highest medals. You think those athletes are thinking about work-life balance to be able to break that thing?" he asked Mukesh Bansal.
Earlier this month, CRED reported that its total income for FY23 surged 3.5 times to Rs 1,484 crore and its losses were reduced by 10 per cent to Rs 1,047 crore. The fintech firm, which rewards individuals for their timely credit card bill payments, said its total income jumped 16 times from Rs 95 crore in FY21.