Indian corporate titan S.N. Subrahmanyan has provoked outrage by championing a seven-day work week and holding up Chinese professionals’ gruelling schedules as a benchmark, reigniting fierce debates about India’s culture of overwork and the future of productivity.
Subrahmanyan, chairman of the conglomerate Larsen & Toubro, was filmed in an undated video that surfaced on January 10 asking employees, “How long can you stare at your wife?” as part of a call for professionals to spend less time at home.
He went on to praise Chinese workers for their commitment, claiming they “work 90 hours a week”, while contrasting them with Americans, who he said “work only 50 hours a week”.
“If you have got to be on top of the world, you have to work 90 hours a week,” he added.
Subrahmanyan’s remarks come about a year after tech titan Narayana Murthy ignited a debate about the country’s work culture by calling on young people to work for 70 hours a week to advance the country’s industrial development.