Debate on Working 70 Hours A Week

In a recent interview, N Narayana Murthy Founder of Infosys advocated a 70- hour work-week.

What Mr Murthy said: “India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity … we will not be able to compete with these countries that have made tremendous progress. So, therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I want to work 70 hours a week’. You know, this is exactly what Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War.”

These comments triggered much reaction, ranging from praise to aspersions on how Japan suffered from social problems from overwork, the need for smart work more than long work, and so on.

They also say that the right comparison for national productivity is gross domestic product (GSP) per hour worked. On this metric, the average Japanese is over four times (and German seven times) as productive as the average Indian.

So increasing working hours per worker may change nothing. So what should we do? Three things in sequence: Get more people working, get more people working in modern manufacturing and services in our cities, and get people working better and longer.

Mr. Murthy is absolutely right to identify productivity as our key national priority. Hence we must first get more people working in anything, and then drastically grow the number of modern jobs in manufacturing and tourism.

And to the comment on 70-hour work week, some of us, fortunate enough to be employed in modern occupations should be inspired by Mr. Murthy’s comment and indeed work harder and longer. There is so much space and such a huge need everywhere in our country for us to contribute, with our biggest contribution being to get more of India working.

It is, in the end, all about productivity.