TV Mohandas Pai shuts down Infosys critic over Narayana Murthy's '70-hour workweek' remark

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra and TV Mohandas Pai got into a war of words over Narayana Murthy's comments on 70-hour workweeks.

In a fiery exchange of words on Twitter, former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai shut down a critique against his former company from defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra. The exchange was sparked by Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy's recent statement, during a conversation with Pai, that Indian youngsters should be prepared to work 70 hours a week if India aims to compete with rapidly advancing economies.

Iyer-Mitra, reacting to Murthy's assertion, commented on X, "Typical Indian sweatshop attitude. That’s why Infosys is a glorified IT coolie provider with low-value add products."

In a swift response, Pai tweeted back, "Abhijit, please stop making value judgments. You do not know Infosys nor what they do. Some of the biggest, most sophisticated global companies get their most complex work done by India. When you build something comparable, a $20 billion revenue company, open your mouth. Until then, please shut up."

@Iyervval Abhijit pl stop make value judgements, you do not know Infosys nor what they do, some of the biggest, most sophisticated Global cos get their most complex work done by Indy. When you build something comparable, 20b$ revenue,open your mouth, till then pl Shut Up https://t.co/wRpOuiaObq

— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) October 27, 2023

“Pai Saab, with that logic Abhijit shouldn’t speak about defence matters coz someone will say pls pick up a weapon and fight first,” wrote one user.

“Laggards or leader, no one is forcing 70 work hours on anyone reacting. There are extra opportunities of growth available for people wanting to work extra. Choice is individual,” wrote another.

Another user had a balanced opinion. "Abhijit is wrong in denigrating Infosys. I have great respect for what Infy achieved (despite successive Indian govts). But I will have to point out the typical Indian Lala expectations of running a sweatshop. It may be an Asian thing as a whole, but number of hours of hard labour in no way determines a country’s ability to compete with the west. What determines it is skill development, quality of education and smart work," the comment read.

Murthy, a billionaire, made the dividing statement during an appearance on 3one4 Capital's podcast 'The Record', hosted by Pai, where he discussed various topics, including nation-building, technology, and India's work culture.

During the conversation, the 77-year-old highlighted that India's low work productivity ranks among the lowest in the world. To compete with economic powerhouses like China, Murthy emphasized the need for India's youth to put in the extra hours, drawing a parallel with the post-World War II efforts of Germany and Japan.

Murthy didn't stop at the workweek recommendation. He pinpointed corruption in government and bureaucratic delays as key obstacles to progress, stating, "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 these decisions, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress."

Asserting that the youth constitute a significant portion of India's population, Murthy stressed that they must take on the responsibility of propelling the nation forward. He called for a transformation in India's culture, advocating discipline, hard work, and determination as the driving forces behind progress.

Narayana Murthy stated, "We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can the government do? Every government is as good as the culture of the people. And our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined, and extremely hard-working people. That transformation has to come from the youngsters because they form a significant majority of our population at this point of time, and they are the ones who can build our country."

This call for a rigorous work ethic is not new coming from Murthy. In 2020, he urged Indian professionals to work 60 hours a week for the next two to three years to revive the post-pandemic economy.

Murthy has found support for his statement from Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal while former BharatPe MD Ashneer Grover provided insight on the backlash saying that the people may not have taken the comments too well as he believes “work is still being measured in 'hours' than 'outcome'”. He added: “The other thing is people feeling as if youngsters’ laziness is only thing keeping India from becoming developed.”