Narayan Murthy, the founder of Infosys came on the first episode of 3one4 Capital’s podcast ‘The Record’, where his remark on Indian youth’s productivity stood out.

Mr. Murthy expressed his concern over the country’s work productivity which is the lowest in the world currently.

He said for India to compete with other emerging economies people need to work at least 70 hours a week.

“Somehow our youth has the habit of taking not-so-desirable habits from the West, and then… not helping the country. India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. 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,” Narayan Murthy said.

Mr. Murthy cited examples of post World War 2 Germany and Japan, where people worked for extra hours for a certain number of years.

He said that the government can’t do anything unless we are ready to put in that extra effort and “every government is as good as the culture of the people.”

Mr. Narayan mentioned that the corporate leaders should address the work force about being disciplined and to be working to accelerate the growth process.