Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal backs Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour work week advice: ‘To build India’

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said in a podcast, “When Mr Murthy said that (70-hour work week), I was publicly in support of that and I got trolled."

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal backed Infosys founder Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour work week advice again as he said that he is not a supporter of the concept of work- life balance. The Ola boss said in a podcast, “When Mr Murthy said that (70-hour work week), I was publicly in support of that and I got trolled on social media for that. But, I don’t care because I have a strong belief that one generation will have to do tapasya… so that we can build the number 1 country in the world, the largest economy.

Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal speaks at the 12th edition of INSIGHT: The DNA of Success, held at the Isha Foundation in Coimbatore. (X/Sadhguru Academy)

Bhavish Aggarwal also said, “I don’t agree with the work-life balance concept because if you are enjoying your work, you will find happiness in life also and work also, and both of them will be in harmony.”

Earlier, Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy said that youngsters need to work 70 hours a week in order for India to compete with economies that have made tremendous progress in the past 2-3 decades. After his comment sparked a huge debate in the country, Narayana Murthy explained his comment, asserting, “I used to work 85-90 hours a week till I retired. I received a scholarship right from my pre-university in 1961. All my friends who went to engineering college received a lot of help from the government in terms of their fees - a highly discounted figure."

He added, "Therefore, my view has always been that those of us in India who have received so much benefit from the country from the taxpayer have an enormous responsibility to work very hard to bring a chance for the betterment of life of the poorer sections of the society. Therefore I don't regret it.”