Kotak boss Nilesh Shah proposes 84-hour workweek, econom Sanjeev Sanyal says ‘it is doable’ | Trending

After NR Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour workweek remark, Nilesh Shah – CEO of Kotak AMC – said that one generation of Indians must work 84 hours a week to “accelerate India’s growth” and “transfer everyone to middle and upper-income levels”. Sanjeev Sanyal (left) agrees with Nilesh Shah’s (right) remark on longer working hours. (Screengrab) Shah made this remark about longer work hours being beneficial for India’s growth during the podcast “Invest Aaj For Kal with Anant Ladha”. Witness the final chapter of the Lok Sabha Elections unfold on HT with live vote count and results. Explore now! Explore now! He said, “Charlie Munger wrote in one of his books that people in Korea worked 84 hours a week for one generation. That means 12 hours a day, every day, every month, every year.” “Recently in India, Narayana Murthy mentioned working 70 hours a week, which caused quite a stir. He said that one generation of Indians needs to work like Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese. If we work hard, there is no doubt that India’s growth will continue, the pace will accelerate, and there will come a time when there will be no sub-Saharan Africa-level poverty in India. We will have transferred everyone to middle-income and upper-income levels,” he added. Econom Sanjeev Sanyal “agreed” with Shah’s 12-hour workweek remark. He mentioned that the current and next generations need to put in “effort” and “procreate” for the future. Sanyal also supports Shah’s view on the 12-hour workweek, stating that it is “doable”. “I agree. One generation will have to put in that effort and unlike the examples mentioned, also remember to procreate. It is doable (with the occasional break). We are that generation and perhaps the next one,” wrote Sanyal on X. Take a look at the posts below: Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour workweek remarkInfosys co-founder and former CEO Narayana Murthy sparked a debate on work-life balance after sharing his opinion on increasing India’s work productivity. During his conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai, Murthy stressed that youth should work for at least 70 hours a week. This, in his opinion, is needed for the country to remain competitive with nations like China and Japan. Murthy said, “If we want to compete with the fastest growing countries like China and Japan, we need to boost up our work productivity. At the moment, India’s work productivity is very low. The government also must reduce the time it takes for decision-making and curb corruption in bureaucracy.” “Our youngsters need to work for at least 70 hours a week,” he added.