In a November 2025 report, ITPro said Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy had raised his weekly-hours target from 70 to 72, describing 72 hours through a 996 schedule: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. The report’s linked interview was unavailable for independent review, so the new figure and its framing should be attributed to ITPro rather than treated as independently verified interview wording. Murthy’s earlier call for a 70-hour week was reported in 2024.
What Murthy reportedly said about 72 hours
ITPro’s November 25, 2025 report characterizes Murthy’s position as moving from a 70-hour weekly target to 72 hours. It links 72 hours to “996”: working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. That schedule totals 72 hours if the full 12 hours each day are counted as work.
ITPro also reproduces Murthy’s argument that hard work matters to individual and national progress, while distinguishing hard work from simply being at the office. Because the linked interview could not be reviewed independently, the article’s account is the basis for this characterization; it does not establish the full interview context or independently verify the exact wording.
How the 72-hour comment relates to the earlier 70-hour appeal
The “last year” in the original headline refers to 2024. ITPro reported on December 17, 2024 that Murthy was advocating a 70-hour work week. The conversation was already underway in 2023, when his appeal for longer hours became part of a wider argument about productivity, economic development and national progress.
Murthy is Infosys’s co-founder; Harvard Business School’s Baker Library identifies him as such and notes the company’s founding in 1981. The change reported in 2025 is therefore a change in the weekly-hours figure associated with his public advocacy, not a new definition of the 70-hour appeal.
70 hours versus the reported 72-hour 996 schedule
| Point of comparison | Earlier appeal | 2025 report |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly target | 70 hours, as reported by ITPro on December 17, 2024: ITPro | 72 hours, as characterized by ITPro on November 25, 2025; the linked interview was unavailable for independent review: ITPro |
| Schedule described | Not stated in the cited 2024 report | 996: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, as described in the cited 2025 report |
| Underlying argument | Hard work and productivity as contributors to national progress | Hard work and productivity as contributors to national progress; the report presents 72 hours as the new target |
The arithmetic difference is two hours a week. The larger issue is whether longer hours actually deliver more useful output, who is expected to work them, and what protections and recovery time accompany them. The sources establish that these questions are part of the debate; they do not establish that increasing hours by itself causes higher productivity or economic growth.
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What the health evidence says about long work weeks
WHO and the International Labour Organization estimated that, globally, working at least 55 hours a week was associated with higher risks of stroke and ischemic heart disease than working 35–40 hours a week. Their 2021 release estimated a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease for the 55-or-more-hour group compared with the 35–40-hour reference group.
The agencies attributed an estimated 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016 to long working hours: 398,000 stroke deaths and 347,000 heart-disease deaths. These are global estimates for 2016, not counts for India or for 2021 or 2025. The analysis drew on studies covering more than 768,000 participants for ischemic heart disease and more than 839,000 for stroke, alongside over 2,300 surveys across 154 countries from 1970 through 2018. The figures describe population-level estimates; they do not predict an individual worker’s outcome.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the debate is about more than an individual work ethic
Murthy’s appeal is commonly framed around hard work and India’s development. In a 2023 Indian Express opinion article, Ruchi Gupta argued that the conversation should also ask whether enough jobs are available to young people, how widely the gains from growth are shared, and what responsibility companies have toward workers. Those are the author’s arguments about the debate, not measured findings established by the article.
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A separate 2023 Indian Express article quoted medical and mental-health professionals on possible effects of sustained long work weeks, including fatigue, burnout and inadequate recovery. That commentary addresses possible impacts and should not be confused with the WHO/ILO’s global estimates of health risks.
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What workers and employers can take from the figures
- Do not treat the 996 label as a complete account of working conditions. The reported hours alone do not say how breaks, overtime, weekly rest, compensation or worker choice are handled.
- Separate hours from output. A longer schedule is not, by itself, evidence of greater productivity; the cited sources do not settle that causal question.
- Read health statistics with their comparison and scope attached. The WHO/ILO figures compare 55 or more weekly hours with 35–40 hours, and the death estimate refers to 2016 globally.
- Include responsibility and distribution in the discussion. The question is not only how much an individual should work, but also who can access jobs, who benefits from growth, and what employers do to protect workers.
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