Infosys founder Narayana Murthy believes that if India wants to make significant progress, India’s youth must increase their productivity and work hard, up to 70 hours a week. Murthy made this request to youth in the first episode of “The Record”, a video series by 3one4 Capital. My request is that our young people say: “This is my country, I want to work 70 hours a week.”
In conversation with the former Infosys CFO Mohandas PaiNarayana Murthy emphasized the need to adopt the right habits from the West. “Somehow our youth have a habit of adopting not-so-desirable habits from the West and then not helping the country,” he said.
Speaking about the rise of emerging economies and China in particular, Murthy said: “If we can look at countries that have made significant progress in the last 25-30 years. I say 25-30 years because then they went through some ups and downs, they went through some difficulties. If you can look at a country like China, if you can look at other countries that have made significant progress economically and then say what policy decisions they have made that allow them to grow very well, then I think we would also grow.”
Murthy made a strong case for bureaucratic efficiency to make India more globally competitive. “…if we do not reduce the delays in our decision-making bureaucracy, we will not be able to compete with the countries that have made enormous progress.”
He lamented that India’s labor productivity is one of the lowest in the world. “If we don’t improve our labor productivity, if we don’t reduce corruption in government, you know, to some extent, because we’ve read that I don’t know the truth about it, we won’t do it if we stop the delays in our decision-making bureaucracy. “We will be able to compete with the countries that have made tremendous progress,” Murthy said.
Murthy gave the example of how companies and governments in Germany and Japan decided to rebuild their countries after World War II. “…they made sure that every German worked overtime for a certain number of years. So I hope that when I say ‘leaders’, our leaders too will be able to reach out to our youth and say that India has received some respect for the first time. This is the time for us to consolidate and accelerate progress and for this we must work very hard. We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity,” Murthy said.
According to Murthy, any government is as good as the culture of the people. “Our culture needs to change to one of extremely determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hard-working people. This change must reach young people, as young people currently make up a significant majority of our population. They are the ones who can build our country with enthusiasm,” he said.
In conversation with the former Infosys CFO Mohandas PaiNarayana Murthy emphasized the need to adopt the right habits from the West. “Somehow our youth have a habit of adopting not-so-desirable habits from the West and then not helping the country,” he said.
Speaking about the rise of emerging economies and China in particular, Murthy said: “If we can look at countries that have made significant progress in the last 25-30 years. I say 25-30 years because then they went through some ups and downs, they went through some difficulties. If you can look at a country like China, if you can look at other countries that have made significant progress economically and then say what policy decisions they have made that allow them to grow very well, then I think we would also grow.”
Murthy made a strong case for bureaucratic efficiency to make India more globally competitive. “…if we do not reduce the delays in our decision-making bureaucracy, we will not be able to compete with the countries that have made enormous progress.”
He lamented that India’s labor productivity is one of the lowest in the world. “If we don’t improve our labor productivity, if we don’t reduce corruption in government, you know, to some extent, because we’ve read that I don’t know the truth about it, we won’t do it if we stop the delays in our decision-making bureaucracy. “We will be able to compete with the countries that have made tremendous progress,” Murthy said.
Murthy gave the example of how companies and governments in Germany and Japan decided to rebuild their countries after World War II. “…they made sure that every German worked overtime for a certain number of years. So I hope that when I say ‘leaders’, our leaders too will be able to reach out to our youth and say that India has received some respect for the first time. This is the time for us to consolidate and accelerate progress and for this we must work very hard. We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity,” Murthy said.
According to Murthy, any government is as good as the culture of the people. “Our culture needs to change to one of extremely determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hard-working people. This change must reach young people, as young people currently make up a significant majority of our population. They are the ones who can build our country with enthusiasm,” he said.
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