“India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world,” Murthy said while speaking to former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai for a podcast, The Record.
Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy suggests that young people work 12 hours a day to help India keep up with countries that have grown a lot in the last few decades. He thinks India’s work productivity is one of the lowest globally and believes that to compete with nations like China, Indian youth need to work extra hours, like Japan and Germany did after World War II.
“Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government at some level, because we have been reading I don’t know the truth of it unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking this decision, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress.”
“So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week,” Murthy also mentioned that this is precisely what the Germans and Japanese did after World War II. “They made sure that every German worked extra hours for a certain number of years.”
Murthy, who started Infosys in India before the economy opened up, making it the country’s second-biggest software company, also said that a government’s success depends on the culture of its people. He added, “Our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined, and extremely hard-working people and we need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can poor government do?”
When questioned about his advice to the young people of India on the 75th year of the country’s independence, the co-founder of Infosys mentioned that, for the first time in the past 300 years, India has gained some respect on the global stage. He believes that it’s the duty of every Indian, particularly the youth, to build upon and strengthen that respect.
“And to enhance that respect, as I have said many times before, the only way the world will respect anybody is performance. That’s where I often used to say performance leads to recognition, recognition leads to respect, and respect leads to power. China is a great example. Therefore, my request to all the wonderful youth of this country is that realize this and work 12 hours a day for the next 20 years to 50 years whatever it is…so that India becomes number one or two in terms of GDP.”
The tech giant emphasized that even if India becomes a larger country than the United States, the income for each person in India will still be much less. Therefore, it’s very important for the youth of India to concentrate on economic growth.
“I want them to realize that all this wonderful progress that we are talking about will come to nothing if the poorest child in the remotest village in India does not have reasonable access to education, healthcare, nutrition, and shelter and most importantly hope – that its progenies will have a better future than itself and that responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of our young people.”
