Indian women have been working over 70-hr per week for decades: Edelweiss CEO

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy made the remarks while appearing on the first episode of 3one4 Capital's podcast ‘The Record’. He advised the youngsters to work for 70 hours per week. The statement received a heavy backlash from the netizens.

New Delhi: Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's advice to youngsters in India, urging them to work 70 hours a week to boost the country's overall productivity, has sparked a heated debate on social media.

While some people support Murthy's view, arguing that India needs to improve its work culture in order to compete with other countries, others have criticised the same.

MD & CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Radhika Gupta, has now weighed in on the issue, saying that many Indian women have been working more than 70 hours a week to build India and the next generation.

"Between offices and homes, many Indian women have been working many more than seventy-hour weeks to build India (through our work) and the next generation of Indians (our children). For years and decades. With a smile, and without a demand for overtime," Gupta wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.

"Funnily, no one has debated about us on Twitter," she added. Gupta's post sparked a flurry of reactions on social media, with users expressing their views in the comments section.

"Very much agree.. I'm married to one such lady. She has been managing all these for the last 18+ years when we had our son," a user wrote.

"Very true. But imagine you work 70 hrs a week with all these other in-house work for women. Women don’t get weekends off from housework, so there is no downtime or self-care for them," another user said.

Meanwhile, former BharatPe Co-founder Ashneer Grover has said that the public got offended at Murthy’s comment as the measure of work done still gets notified based on hours spent rather than the outcome.

"I think junta (public) got offended here because work is still being measured in ‘hours’ rather than ‘outcome’. The other thing is people feeling as if youngster’s laziness is the only thing keeping India from becoming developed," he posted on X.