Don't believe in giving advice without doing it myself: Narayan Murthy defends 70-hour work remark

Infosys founder Narayan Murthy defended his 70-hour work week advice for the youth days after facing backlash online, saying that the educated people owe it to those "less fortunate who work extremely hard".

In an interview to CNBC on Friday, Murthy said that though his advice to boost productivity may have triggered a massive debate globally, there were a lot of "good people" and "NRIs" who backed his statement.

"The issue is that we have to work hard in this country because the poor farmer works very hard...those of us who received education at a huge discount, thanks to the subsidy from the government for all these education, owe it to the less fortunate citizens of India to work extremely hard," he said.

"I rationalised it this way. If anybody that has much better than me in their own field, not necessarily in my field, I would respect, I would call them, and I would say, where do you think I was wrong in saying this? But I didn't find. 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

He further said that he has never given advice "without doing it" himself first, mentioning that at Infosys he used to start at 6 am and wind up work by 9 pm.

"I used to go (to work) six and a half days. Even in the electronics area, I used to work six and a half days. And every day I would leave home at 6 am in the morning. I would be in the office at 6.20. And I would leave by about 8.15, 8.30 pm," he said.

His wife and philanthropist Sudha Murty also said that a 70-hour work week was common for her family and that her husband regularly used to work up to 90 hours a week.

The whole controversy surrounding the work-life balance of the salaried class erupted last year when the Infosys founder, during a podcast, urged the working population to work for 70 hours a week. The remarks drew criticism from many netizens, including some CEOs.

"This is exactly what the Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War... they made sure that every German worked extra hours for a certain number of years," Murthy had said on a podcast with former Infosys CEO Mohandas Pai.

(With inputs from agencies)