Prayagraj:

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy on Sunday called the rising population a major challenge for the country, saying Indians had not paid attention to population control since the Emergency period.

Mr Murthy made the remark during the convocation ceremony of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology in Prayagraj, where he was the chief guest.

“India faces significant challenges related to population, per capita land availability, and healthcare facilities,” he said.

“Since the Emergency period, we Indians have not paid enough attention to population control. This poses a risk of making our country unsustainable. In comparison, countries such as the US, Brazil and China have far higher per capita land availability,” he said.

Mr Murthy also emphasised that a true professional’s responsibility was to contribute to the nation’s progress.

“This contribution depends on having high aspirations, dreaming big and working hard to turn those dreams into reality,” the Infosys co-founder said.

“One generation must make many sacrifices to improve the lives of the next. My parents, siblings and teachers made significant sacrifices for my progress and my presence here as the chief guest is proof that their sacrifices were not in vain,” he said.

During the ceremony, 1,670 degrees were awarded. Postgraduate students received 34 gold medals while undergraduates received 13. 

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Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour work week comment has sparked a huge debate online. Mr Murthy made the remark on a podcast hosted by former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai.  

Now, days after the interview, Mr Pai has shared “interesting data”. He added that NR Narayana Murthy’s “advice was for youngsters.” The data talks about how many hours each week do urban men between the age group 15 and 59 work? The illustration also featured India’s map along with region-wise data. As per the illustration, the Indian average stands at 61.6 hours per week. The source of the data was Time Use Survey (2019). 

Mr Pai said, “Interesting data! This is for all ages. NRN advice was for youngsters, people below 30! Prosperity needs hard work, data shows.”

Interesting data! This is for all ages. NRN advice was for youngsters, people below 30! Prosperity needs hard work, data shows pic.twitter.com/15j6nCd9uA

— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) October 28, 2023

NR Narayana Murthy, on the first episode of  3one4 Capital’s podcast ‘The Record’, said, “India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government at some level, because we have been reading, I don’t know the truth of it, unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking this decision, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress.”

He added, “So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say ‘this is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week”.

Giving an example of how other nations have enhanced their productivity, Mr Murthy said, “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.”