Narayana Murthy, who stepped down from an executive role at Infosys in 2014, expressed disappointment over the company's shift to a five-day workweek in 1986.

Infosys founder N.R. Narayan Murthy sparks controversy with unapologetic stance on 70-hour workweek, emphasising hard work over balance.

Narayana Murthy went ahead and expressed his disappointment with India adopting a 5 days work week from 6 days work week in 1986. He stressed that the reduced work may affect the growth of India. "We need to work hard in this country. There is no substitute for hard work. Even if you are the most intelligent guy, you have to work hard,” he said.

TV18’s Shereen Bhan at the Global Leadership Summit, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy also recalled how KV Kamath responded to a question about work-life balance nearly 25 years ago.

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy has sparked a debate by questioning India's pursuit of homegrown large language models (LLMs). He argues that India

"I don't believe in work-life balance," declares Infosys' Narayana Murthy as he defends his infamous '70-hour work-week' comment while talking to Shereen Bhan at CNBC TV18's Global Leadership Summit #CNBCTV18GLS #CNBCTV18at25 #cnbctv18digital @ShereenBhan pic.twitter.com/Hcrej8DUkw — CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) November 14, 2024

To address this disparity, Narayana Murthy advocated a focus on exports, similar to the strategies employed by China and Vietnam.

India’s culture of oral rather than written knowledge has limited the development of large data repositories, which are crucial for LLMs, according to Murthy.