Over 40 years of working 70+ hours a week wasn’t a waste, says Infosys’ Narayana Murthy

Co-founder of Infosys NR Narayana Murthy doesn’t appear to be bothered by the controversy he caused when he recently advocated for young people to work 70 hours a week in order to increase productivity and strengthen India’s competitiveness.

Murthy, now 77, claimed that he had put in a lot of hours himself when founding Infosys in 1981.

In an interview with ET, he said, “I used to be in the office at 6:20 am and leave the office at 8:30 pm and worked six days a week.” “I know every nation that became prosperous did so through hard work.”

He was raised with this work ethic from an early age.

Early in childhood, my parents instilled in me the belief that the only way out of poverty was to work really hard, provided that one could maximise production for every hour spent at work,” the man remarked.

Murthy came from a modest background; his father was a Mysore schoolteacher and he was the sixth of eight children. After graduating from Mysore University with a degree in electrical engineering, he went on to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur to study computer science.

“During my entire 40-plus years of professional life, I worked 70 hours a week,” he repeated. “Up until 1994, when we had a six-day workweek, I used to put in at least 85 to 90 hours a week at work. It wasn’t a waste of time.

Indian labour productivity is among the lowest in the world, according to Murthy, who made this claim on a recent podcast with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai.

Honesty and a strong work ethic

India has significant ground to cover, according to Murthy. “We must remember that with a per-capita (income) of $2,300, India is a poor country,” he stated to ET. “For us to become a middle-income country (with a per-capita of $8,000-10,000) it will take about 16 to 18 years even with an annual growth rate of 8%.”

It takes this kind of dedication to break free from the cycle of poverty.

“My parents told me that the only way I can escape from the orbit of poverty was by good values – honesty, hard work, discipline, and good work ethic,” he explained. In the short- and medium-term, prioritising the good of the community over one’s own interests will improve oneself. I am aware that hard labour was the foundation of every prosperous nation.”