Hyderabad:Infosys founder Narayana Murthy has reiterated his controversial advice to the youth in India to work for 70 hours a week, asserting that the country's educated population owes it to the less fortunate to work "extremely hard".
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, the tech tycoon defended his statement and said that the farmers and factory workers in the country work very hard and it is very common in India. "Therefore, people who have received education at a high discount, thanks to the subsidy from the government for all this education, owe it to the less fortunate citizens of India to work extremely hard," Murthy added.
The 77-year-old Murthy asserted that a lot of "Western friends" and "NRIs" are happy with his statement despite the widespread backlash on social media.
Sudha Murthy, wife of Narayana Murthy, said a 70-hour work week was common for her family, adding that Murthy used to work for as many as 90 hours a week. Murthy said he has never given advice "without doing it myself first", mentioning that at Infosys he used to start at 6 am and wind up work by 9 pm.
"I rationalised it this way. If anybody, that is, much better than me in their own field, not necessarily in my field, I would respect them, I would call them, and I would say, where do you think I was wrong in saying this? But I didn't find it. A lot of my Western friends, a lot of NRIs, a lot of good people in India called me, and without exception, they were all very happy(sic)," Murthy told CNBC-TV18.
"I used to go to work for six and a half days. Even in the electronics area, I used to work six and a half days. Every day I would leave home at 6 am. I would be in the office at 6.20. I would leave by about 8.15, 8.30 pm," he claimed.
The Infosys founder fell into controversy after he advised the youth of the country to work 70 hours a week in October last year. The appeal faced brickbats from working professionals as well as other CEOs for promoting a lack of work-life balance. A very small mass of people supported the statement while the majority opposed stating mental and physical health.
In the interview with CNBC-TV18, Murthy also revealed that keeping his wife Sudha Murty away from Infosys was his biggest mistake at that time. He even said that she was ‘more qualified’ than all co-founders. “I had this feeling that good corporate governance means not bringing family into it. In those days, it was only family rule, all kinds of children used to come and run the company. There used to be a violation of all laws,” the businessman said.
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