Never given advice without doing it myself: Narayana Murthy defends 70-hour work week

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy backed his controversial 70-hours-a-week advice for India's youth, saying the country's educated population owes it to the less fortunate to work "extremely hard".

In an interview to CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, the 77-year-old tech tycoon highlighted the hard work put by farmers and factory workers to defend his stance. "The issue is that we have to work hard in this country because the poor farmer works very hard...those of us who received education at a huge discount, thanks to the subsidy from the government for all these education, owe it to the less fortunate citizens of India to work extremely hard," he said in the interview. 

Murthy said lot of "western friends" and "NRIs" are happy with his statement despite the widespread backlash on social media. 

Philanthropist and author Sudha Murty, who was also part of the CNBC-TV18 interview, said 70-hour work week was common for her family, adding that he (Murthy) used worked for as many as 90 hours in a week. Murthy said he has never given advice "without doing it myself first", mentioning that at Infosys he used to start at 6 am and wind up work by 9 pm.

Also read: Murthy says he was wrong in not allowing his wife Sudha Murty to join Infosys

In a conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai on a podcast in October last year, Murthy said that India’s work productivity was among the lowest in the world and to compete with countries such as China, India’s youngsters must put in extra hours of work – as Japan and Germany did after World War 2.

His comments triggered a backlash, raising concerns about the importance of work-life balance, mental health, and employee well-being.

Also Watch: 2024 Bajaj Chetak Premium, Hero Motocorp's X440cc bike, Ather 450 Apex e-scooter, other noted two-wheelers in January 2024