Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy has raised his expectations from India’s youngsters in terms of productivity, saying that young Indians should work for a minimum of 70 hours per week if the country wants to compete with emerging economies.
The billionaire tech founder made similar comments in an interview with a news channel three years ago, when he suggested that youngsters should put in 60 hours per week for the next two to three years in order to revive the Indian economy.
In an interview with ET Now in 2020, Murthy said, ‘’Indians would have to learn to live with coronavirus for the next 12-18 months, companies will need to take precautions, and overall, Indians would have to put in more work and more hours to put the economy on a track again.”
Internet divided on Murthy’s work-week comment
Murthy’s comment was hailed by ridesharing company Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal.
“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!” Aggarwal said.
Murthy, who founded Infosys in pre-liberalised India but made it the country’s second-largest software exporter, further said that 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”. “We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can poor government do?”
When asked about his message to the youth of India in the 75th year of their freedom, the Infosys co-founder said that for the first time in the last 300 years, India has received some respect in the eyes of the committee of nations and it is the responsibility of every Indian but more so the youth to consolidate on that respect.
“And to enhance that respect, as I have said many times before, the only way the world will respect anybody is performance. That’s where I often used to say performance leads to recognition, recognition leads to respect, and respect leads to power. China is a great example. Therefore, my request to all the wonderful youth of this country is that realise this and work 12 hours a day for the next 20 years 50 years whatever it is…so that India becomes number one or two in terms of GDP.”
The tech titan, however, underlined that even if India becomes bigger than the United States, its per capita income will be much lower therefore there is an urgent need for the country’s youth to focus on growth. “I want them to realize that all this wonderful progress that we are talking about will come to nothing if the poorest child in the remotest village in India does not have reasonable access to education, healthcare, nutrition, and shelter and most importantly hope – that its progenies will have a better future than itself and that responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of our young people.”
