From online chat forums to corporate board rooms, a lot of discussions this week have been held over Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s remarks urging youngsters to work 70 hours a week. In a podcast, the 77-year-old said that India can only grow and compete with economies like China if youngsters in the country significantly improve their work productivity.

Mr Murthy made the remarks during a conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai on the first episode of  3one4 Capital’s podcast ‘The Record’. The two discussed how China and the US have made significant economic progress in the last few decades.

Mr Murthy, asked about how India could compete with these economies, said that not only will the country have to increase its work productivity, but also reduce the corruption and bureaucracy in the system.

“India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we reduce our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking decisions, we will not be able to compete with the countries that have made progress,” Mr Murthy said.

He said that young people in India have a habit of taking habits from the West and then not helping the country.

“Somehow, our youth have a habit of taking not-so-desirable habits from the West and then not helping the country. Therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say This is my country, I want to work 70 hours a week,” he said.

To drive home the importance of increased productivity and discipline, Narayana Murthy then cites the examples of Germany and Japan to show how their economies grew rapidly after World War II

He also urged corporate leaders to address young people in their company and explain the importance of hard work.

“I hope our corporate leaders will be able to address our youngsters and say – for the first time India has received certain respect. This is the time for us to consolidate and accelerate the progress. And for that we need to work very hard and improve our work productivity,” he said.  

“Unless we do that, what can the government do. Every government is as good as the culture of the people. Our culture has to change to that of extremely determined and extremely hard-working people. And that change has to come from youngsters because they form a significant part of our population and they are the ones who can build our country with gusto,” Mr Murthy says.

His comments have sparked a debate not only among users on social media, but also among business leaders who are divided on the idea.

Days after the interview, Mr Pai, who hosted the podcast, shared “interesting data” and clarified that the remarks were aimed at people under 30.

Mr Pai, sharing a graph on the number of hours people work in all Indian states, said, “Interesting data! This is for all ages. NRN advice was for youngsters, people below 30! Prosperity needs hard work, data shows.”

Chilling details have emerged in connection to the Swiss woman’s murder whose body was found wrapped in a garbage bag in Delhi earlier this month.

Nina Berger was suffocated to death using a plastic bag in a car and not strangled, said sources citing the post-mortem report. Her hands, legs and mouth were tied at that time, and the accused drove pleasure from seeing her in pain, they said.

The accused laughed at her as she desperately tried to free herself, the sources said, adding that she struggled for life for about 30 minutes before dying. “Her eyes protruded and the accused laughed seeing her misery,” they said.

He then dumped her body in the seat adjacent to the driver’s seat and used black sunshades on the car windows – the same that was on the windscreen, the sources added.

The woman’s body was found half covered in a black disposal bag near a government school in Tilak Nagar on October 20.

The police have arrested a man named Gurpreet Singh. He had befriended the woman in Switzerland and wanted to extort money from her, sources said.

Gurpreet used to visit Berger in Switzerland and had suspected her of being in a relationship with another man, police sources had earlier said. He then planned to murder Berger and invited her to India, they had said.

Berger landed in India on October 11 and days later the accused executed his murder plan. He had also bought a car using a fake identity and kept her body in that car until foul smell prompted him to throw the body on the road.

Cops reportedly traced Gurpreet after getting the vehicle’s registration number with the help of the CCTV footage. They seized the car in which the body was kept and another four-wheeler that belonged to Gurpreet.

They also recovered Rs 2.25 crore from the accused’s house.

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The 15-km rail link (5km in India and 10km in Bangladesh) will boost cross-border trade and significantly reduce the travel time between Agartala and Kolkata via Dhaka, the officials said. The trial run of the project will take place at 12pm on Monday. It encompasses one major bridge and three minor bridges. “At present, it takes about 31 hours to reach Kolkata from Agartala by train, which will be reduced to just 10 hours,” an official said.