Comparing India’s current worker and productivity situation to those of Germany and Japan after the Second World War, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy has suggested that the country’s young workers should be committing at least 70 hours of their time per week.
In an interview published on YouTube by Indian venture capital firm 3one4 Capital, 77-year-old Murthy said that working long hours would help to define a culture that improves the country’s government.
Murthy also shared his thoughts on how countries and companies can work together to solve climate change moving forward.
India’s future of work
In response to a question about tackling climate change, Murthy says that we should look at countries that have made significant progress over a long period of time. He suggests observing a period of at least 25-30 years, during which there may have been struggles, is best in order to draw a more general trend, rather than looking at close-up fluctuations.
He adds that, in order to get citizens out of poverty requires more jobs that pay well, stating that governments play a part in eliminating restrictions imposed upon entrepreneurs in order to harness a more business-centric population, helping to create more roles. This creates wealth for workers, investors, and generates tax for the government.
In order for the country to continue developing, Murthy said: “Performance leads to recognition, recognition leads to respect, and respect leads to power,” stating that China has been a “great example” of this.
He continues to request that India’s youth work 12-hour days for the next several decades with the goal of making the country one with a sufficiently high GDP.
Of course, besides the legal and moral implications of spending more hours working than sleeping, there’s also the fact that other Asian countries have been forced to reassess their long working hours, and that many Western countries are pushing for four-day working weeks, rendering Murthy’s proposition outlandishly unsustainable if not a little hopeful for the country.
