"Young People Must Work 70 Hours a Week" Billionaire's Remark Sparks Outrage on Indian Social Media

"Undesirable Habits Learned from the West"
Strong Backlash and Criticism Emerge on SNS

Narayana Murthy, co-founder of the Indian global information technology (IT) company Infosys and a billionaire tycoon, sparked controversy by saying, "India needs young people who work very hard, 70 hours a week."

Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys.
Photo by AFP Yonhap News

Murthy appeared on a YouTube show and said, "India currently needs decisive, disciplined, and extremely hardworking people," according to foreign media including CNN on the 27th (local time).

He pointed out, "(Working long hours) is what Germany and Japan did after World War II," and added, "I don't know how Indian youth have picked up undesirable habits from the West that do not benefit the country."

He continued, "India is receiving global respect for the first time, so business leaders must motivate young people to work hard," and added, "We need to drive further progress now."

Murthy also said that India should learn policies that have helped emerging markets like China.

The 70 hours per week that Murthy advocated means working more than 14 hours a day if working five days a week, or about 12 hours a day if calculated over six days a week.

Foreign media explained, "(Murthy's remarks) came at a time when there is a drastic change in perceptions of working hours in the West as well as in China," and said, "He is being heavily criticized on social media (SNS) and elsewhere."

In China, the long working hours culture represented by '996' (working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week) has been pointed out as a social problem. Especially, since there was no reward for working hard, the concept of "lying flat" (Tangping·?平) emerged a few years ago as a form of resistance.

Meanwhile, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India's economic growth rate this year is estimated at 6.3%. This is higher than China (5.6%) and is projected to be the highest among major countries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.