Comparing India’s current labor and productivity situation with that of Germany and Japan after the Second World War, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy has suggested that the country’s young workers should devote 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 long working hours would help create 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 in the future.
India’s future of work
Responding to a question about tackling climate change, Murthy says we should look at countries that have made significant progress over a long period of time. He suggests that observing a period of at least 25 to 30 years, during which there may have been struggle, is best to draw a more general trend, rather than looking at close-up fluctuations.
He adds that lifting citizens out of poverty will require more jobs that pay well, and argues that governments have a role to play in removing the restrictions placed on entrepreneurs to create a more business-oriented population and thus help create more roles. This creates prosperity for employees and investors and generates taxes for the government.
To ensure the country can continue to develop, Murthy said: “Achievements lead to recognition, recognition leads to respect and respect leads to power,” saying China has been a “great example” of this.
He continues to ask India’s youth to work twelve hours a day in the coming decades, with the aim of making the country a country with a sufficiently high GDP.
In addition to the legal and moral implications of working more hours than sleeping, there is of course also the fact that other Asian countries have been forced to reconsider their long working hours, and that many Western countries are pushing for four-day working weeks, making Murthy’s proposal extremely untenable, if not a bit hopeful for the country.