‘He has worked 80 to 90 hrs a week’: Sudha defends Murthy

NEW DELHI: Defending Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s recent comment that Indian youth should work for 70 hours a week to boost the country’s overall productivity, wife Sudha Murty has now come up saying, “he has worked 80 to 90 hours a week”.

Sudha Murty, the author and head of Infosys Foundation, said “he has worked 80 to 90 hours a week, so, he doesn’t know what less than that is. He believes in real hard work and he lived like that. Hence, he has told what he felt”. She also added her husband believes in passion and “real hard work”. When asked if she had tried explaining to him how things operate in corporate settings these days, Murthy responded, “People have different ways of expression. But he lived like that, he had walked the talk. So, he has shared his experience”.

While some people support Murthy’s view, arguing that India needs to improve its work culture in order to compete with other countries, others have criticised the same. Anupam Mittal, founder of Shadi.com, has shared a selfie with his fellow judges of Shark Tank India in his latest post on X, saying that “after all these years, still working 70-hour weeks”.

Giving a detailed explanation of what the Infosys founder might have meant, Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani said, “I believe when he talks of work, it’s not limited to the company.. it extends to yourself and to your country. He hasn’t said work 70 hours for the company - work 40 hours for the company but work 30 hours for yourself.”

“Invest the 10,000 hours that make one a master in one’s subject.. burn the midnight oil and become an expert in your field,” he added. However, RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh Goenka has disagreed with Murthy’s view. In a post on X, he wrote, “the 5-day office week is dead! People are working nearly 33 per cent of their office time remotely, and it’s a game-changer. Flexibility is worth as much to people as an 8 pc raise.”