The latest remark — “India needs a 9 AM to 9 PM work culture” — attributed to narayana murthy resurfaces a familiar debate disguised as economic patriotism. Positions this as a visionary call for national growth. But beneath the rhetoric lie deeper contradictions and incentives rarely scrutinized.
At a time when global labour standards are shifting toward shorter workweeks, Murthy’s insistence on overwork mirrors corporate nostalgia rather than economic necessity. China, which india often imitates in productivity arguments, has already criminalised the 996 culture after worker deaths and social collapse. Yet indian elites continue selling long hours as “nation-building,” shielding themselves from the consequences of exhausted, underpaid workforces.
The economic incentive is unmissable: a fatigued employee base lowers hiring needs, cuts training costs, and ensures subdued wage negotiations. India’s IT giants — including those built by Murthy — have everything to gain from normalized overwork and very little accountability. Meanwhile, institutional safeguards such as labour courts, inspectors, and unions remain either politically neutered or structurally irrelevant in the white-collar sector.
Short term, such messaging pressures young workers into believing burnout is patriotic. Long term, it accelerates India’s brain drain, weakens innovation, and widens class divides between the executive families who enjoy global vacations and the employees who barely see daylight.
As india imagines itself a global tech hub, it must ask: Is the path to economic growth really paved with 12-hour shifts, or with systems that value human time as much as corporate ambition?
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