The internet is divided over Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy's comments regarding youth productivity in India. According to him, in order for India's youth to catch up with economies that have made significant strides in the recent two to three decades, they must labour 12 hours a day.
According to Murthy, India has some of the lowest rates of labour productivity in the world, and its youth need to work longer hours to catch up with nations like China, just like Japan and Germany did after World War II. "India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world," Murthy said while speaking to former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai on the inaugural episode of 3one4 Capital's podcast 'The Record'.
Murthy implored India's youngsters to take up the mantle of nation-building, proclaiming, "So, my request is that our youngsters must say, 'This is my country. I'd like to work 70 hours a week'."
Murthy further said, "And that transformation has to come to youngsters because youngsters form a significant majority of our population at this point of time, and they are the ones who can build our country."
"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."