Narayana Murthy Doesn’t Know Working for Less Than 80 to 90 Hours A Week, Says Wife Sudha | Exclusive

Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, has sparked a debate after advising “70 hours-a-week” work formula to youngsters to increase the country’s overall productivity. Social media experts and several others have reacted to Murthy’s formula, with some stressing that such routines would lead to cardiac issues and stress related complications.

While modern day entrepreneurs and doctors keep the debate alive, News18 spoke exclusively with Narayana Murthy’s wife and author, Sudha, and asked her about the ongoing debate.

Visiting Mumbai in the capacity of an author at the recently concluded 14th Tata Lit Fest, Sudha had a full-house talk session at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), on Sunday. Talking with News18 about her books, philanthropy and a life with Narayana Murthy, Sudha mentioned how her husband believes in passion and “real hard work”. When asked her about what she felt on the ongoing debate, she said, “He has worked 80 to 90 hours a week, so, he doesn’t know what less than that is. He believes in real hard work and he lived like that. Hence, he has told what he felt.”

But has she tried telling him how things work in a corporate these days? “People have different ways of expression. But he lived like that, he had walked the talk. So, he has shared his experience,” she added.

Narayana and Sudha Murty have been married for around 45 years, and a lot has been written about how they have supported each other throughout. When asked her what she has learnt from Narayana Murthy over the years, Sudha quickly responded, “I have learnt a lot of things (from him). Number one is that keep an aim and work for that. Don’t be distracted neither to the left nor to the right. He keeps an aim and he works on that. [Second] When you are working, don’t leave any stone unturned. Third thing – if you have passion, only then you will excel. It is not your intelligence or dumb hard work, but smart hard work that will take you ahead.”

Narayana Murthy had made a statement on India’s low productivity a couple of days ago in an interview with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai at the inaugural edition of 3one4 Capital’s podcast, The Record. Murthy touched upon the topic of youth labour and said he believed youngster must work 70 hours a week to boost country’s productivity, which he says is among the lowest in the world. In order to compete with country’s like China, the country’s youth must put in extra hours of work as Japan and Germany did after World War II.