Indian Youths Should Work 70 Hours A Week: Narayana Murthy

NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, has sparked a nationwide discussion by proposing that India's youth should be ready to commit 70 hours per week to enhance the country's work culture and effectively compete on the global stage.

On the first episode of 'The Record', a video series by 3one4 Capital, Murthy told former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai about the need for changing the country's productivity.

"Somehow our youth have the habit of taking not so desirable habits from the west and then not helping the country," he said.

Highlighting the rise of emerging markets, the Infosys co-founder said, "If we can look at countries that have made significant progress in the last 25-30 years. Why I'm saying 25-30 years is then they would have gone through some ups and downs, they have gone through some difficulties. If they can look at a country like China, if they can look at other countries that have made significant progress economically, and then say what are the policy decisions they took so that they could grow very well, then I believe that we would also grow."

Murthy firmly supported the idea of enhancing bureaucratic efficiency to boost India's global competitiveness. He said, "...unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking decisions, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress."

Narayana Murthy then claimed that India's productivity is one of the lowest in the world. "Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government, you know some level, because we have been reading I don't know the truth of that, unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking decision we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress," Murthy added.

Murthy cited how corporations and governments in Germany and Japan jointly made the decision to rebuild their nations following World War II. "...they made sure that every German worked extra hours for a certain number of years. So I hope our leaders too will be able to, when I say leaders, corporate leaders too, will be able to address our youngsters and say (that) for the first time India has received certain respect. This is the time for us to consolidate and accelerate the progress and for doing that we need to work very hard. We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity," Murthy added.

Murthy's perspective is that the quality of every government is a reflection of the culture of its people. "Our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hardworking people. That transformation has to come to youngsters because youngsters form a significant majority of our population at this point of time. They are the ones who can build our country you know with gusto," he claimed.