Narayana Murthy Defends '70-Hour Work Week' Remark: Never Given Advice Without Doing It Myself

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy has reiterated his controversial advice to young individuals to work '70 hours a week' saying hardworking is common in India.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Murthy defended his earlier stand and said "Farmers and factory workers work very hard" in India. According to him, most people in the country take on physically demanding professions.

"Therefore, 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.

Despite getting criticism from a section of people over his remarks, many "good people" and "NRIs" agreed with his statement. "I rationalized it this way. If anybody that has much better than me in their own field, not necessarily in my field, I would respect, I would call them, and I would say, where do you think I was wrong in saying this? But I didn't find. A lot of my western friends, a lot of NRIs, a lot of good people in India called me, and without exception, they were all very happy," he said in the interview.

The Infosys co-founder's wife and author Sudha Murty, who was next to her husband, said that it was common for her family to work for over 70 hours and they used to work for over 90 hours in a week.

Stating that he never dispenses advice "without doing it myself first," Narayana Murthy spoke about his demanding work schedule at Infosys, where he dedicated 85-90 hours every week.

"I used to go (to work) six and a half days. Even in the electronics area, I used to work six and a half days. And every day I would leave home at 6 a.m. in the morning. I would be in the office at 6.20. And I would leave by about 8.15, 8.30 pm," he added.

Murthy ignited a storm on social media following his appearance on a podcast, where he suggested the concept of a 70-hour workweek for young individuals. During a discussion with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai, Murthy contended that India's work productivity ranks amongst the world's lowest and in order to compete with nations like China, India's youth must invest additional work hours, akin to the post-World War 2 efforts of Japan and Germany.

"Hence, I urge our young citizens to say, 'This is my nation. I'm willing to dedicate 70 hours a week,'" the 77-year-old entrepreneur said.