‘You should be able to compete by number of hours…’: Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath amid '70 hours work week' debate

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath is the latest to join the 70-hour workweek debate. Addressing a session recently, Kamath highlighted that though many countries are following a 4-day workweek schedule, capitalism is the way forward, where everybody needs to compete with everybody, which also includes the number of hours of work.  

Speaking at CNBC TV18's India Business Leaders Awards 2023 earlier this week, Kamath said: "If we all agreed to the fact that capitalism is the way to go, the very thing that we need to cherish is competitiveness. Everybody needs to be able to compete with everybody. If you want to compete by the number of work hours, you should be able to do it."

He said: "There is so much precedent for 4 day work weeks, in socialist-leaning Nordic or Scandinavian countries to show that this form of ecosystem does not work as well as capitalism."

His views were quite different from his elder brother Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath. In 2021, Nithin had said the company was ‘killing’ all work-related chats post 6 pm and holidays.

“At Zerodha, we have just killed all work-related chats post 6 pm & holidays. Also trying to get as many conversations to be asynchronous, moving them from chat to our internal instance of @discourse. Curious to see if this helps reduce the feeling of burnt out & brain fried,” Kamath had posted in 2021.

“Apparently, multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain. Being part of multiple discussions on different topics in different chat groups simultaneously (multitasking) has gone up exponentially post WFH,” Kamath added, in a follow-up post.

Last month, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy triggered a debate among entrepreneurs and business leaders after he said that youngsters in India should work 70 hours a week to make it work for India. While discussing India's stand in the world right now, Murthy, 77, told former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai that India’s work productivity is among the lowest in the world.

He added that to compete with countries like China, the country’s youngsters must put in extra hours of work – like Japan and Germany did after World War II. Similarly, in 2020, Murthy asked professionals to work 60 hours a week for the next two to three years to revive the post-pandemic economy.

“India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world," Murthy told Pai during the podcast, The Record. "So therefore, I request 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."

Notably, the idea found many takers like Ola Co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal, former board member of Infosys Mohandas Pai, and JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal. However, many have spoken about issues such as low salaries, supportive policies, smart work, and smart choices.

Sudha Murty, the wife of the 77-year-old billionaire, said that Murthy himself worked for 80-90 hours. “He has worked 80 to 90 hours a week, so, he doesn’t know what less than that is. He believes in real hard work and he lived like that. Hence, he has told what he felt."

Pai, reacting to a post by defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, asked him to stop making value judgments about Infosys Ltd.  Iyer-Mitra, reacting to Murthy's idea, posted on X: "Typical Indian sweatshop attitude. That’s why Infosys is a glorified IT coolie provider with low-value add products."

Pai, who was the former CFO and Board Member of Infosys Ltd, posted back: "Abhijit, please stop making value judgments. You do not know Infosys or what they do. Some of the biggest, most sophisticated global companies get their most complex work done by India. When you build something comparable, a $20 billion revenue company, open your mouth. Until then, please shut up."
 

 

International data and standard

According to International Labour Organisation 2023 data, Indians are already among the hardest workers in the world, averaging 47.7 hours per week per employed person. It said in comparison to the 10 biggest economies, Indians have the longest average work week.

India ranks seventh in the global ranking with only Qatar, Congo, Lesotho, Bhutan, Gambia, and the United Arab Emirates averaging more. So much so, that ILO is reportedly planning a special India-specific report on working hours.

Also read: Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath is youngest philanthropist, Kamath brothers donated Rs 110 cr in FY23: EdelGive Hurun India List 2023

Also watcj: Shiv Nadar, Nikhil Kamath, Mukesh Ambani, and more: Here are India’s most generous individuals in FY23