Hustle culture and the 70-hour work week in Indian startups

Hustle culture is the belief that success comes from working very long hours, and that rest is something to earn later. The topic asks whether Indian startups, and India more widely, should expect employees to work 70 hours a week. A 70-hour week is about 12 hours a day for six days.

The debate began on 30 October 2023. Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy said in a podcast that young Indians should be ready to work 70 hours a week. It came back in January 2025, when L&T chairman S. N. Subrahmanyan spoke of a 90-hour week. On 6 February 2025, Parliament was told that the government has no proposal to raise the legal maximum.

Background

Murthy gave low productivity as his reason, and compared India's position to Germany and Japan after the Second World War. Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal backed him. The All India IT and ITeS Employees' Union replied that 70 hours is illegal. Chandrasekhar Sripada of the Indian School of Business warned against copying China's "996" culture, which means working 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week.

The law is clear. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code limits work to 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week. It came into force on 21 November 2025. Overtime needs the worker's consent and is paid at double rate. So a 70-hour week is possible only with overtime that the worker agrees to.

Indians already work long hours. ILO figures cited by NBC News in 2023 put the average at 47.7 hours a week, against 36.4 in the US and 46.1 in China. The Periodic Labour Force Survey found that salaried workers averaged 48.2 hours a week in April-June 2024.

Startups are where the debate is sharpest. DPIIT recognised about 2.23 lakh startups by 31 March 2026, and the government says they created over 23 lakh direct jobs. I could not find a reliable survey of working hours for startups alone, so the figures in this article are for Indian workers in general. The widget below lets you test how a long week uses up your 168 hours, and how output changes with hours in a classic study.

Points in favour

• Early-stage firms are short of time. A startup has a small team and limited money, so supporters say that intense effort in the first years can decide whether it survives. Murthy made a similar case for the country when he said young people should work to close India's productivity gap.
• More hours can mean more output, up to a point. Stanford economist John Pencavel studied munitions workers in the First World War. He found that output rose in proportion to hours up to 49 a week. After that it kept rising more slowly, until about 63 hours.
• The law allows willing workers to do more. Overtime is legal when the worker consents and gets double pay. A person who wants to put in extra hours for a project or for equity can do so without breaking the 48-hour rule.
• Some people want the intensity. Supporters say that many founders and early employees choose to work long hours because they own part of the company or want to learn fast. Their view is that a choice made freely should not be called exploitation.
• Global competition is real. ILO figures cited by NBC put weekly hours at 46.1 in China and 47.7 in India. Supporters argue that India cannot slow down while it is still building its industries.

Points against

• Output flattens after a point. In the same Pencavel study, output at 70 hours differed little from output at 56 hours. So the extra 14 hours bought almost nothing.
• Health risks rise. A 2021 WHO and ILO study compared people working 55 hours or more a week with those working 35 to 40. It found a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease.
• The government's own survey flags desk hours. The Economic Survey 2024-25 noted adverse health effects above 55 to 60 hours a week. Its special survey found that people at a desk for 12 or more hours a day score about 100 points lower on mental wellbeing than those at a desk for two hours or less.
• Indians already work long. At 47.7 hours a week, India is above China and far above the US. This suggests that the productivity gap has more to do with skills, tools and capital than with hours.
• Consent is not always free. A new joiner in a startup may feel unable to refuse overtime. The ILO also warned in 2023 that long hours can hold back women's progress at work, because care work at home does not shrink.

Opening the discussion

You can open with a definition. "A 70-hour week is about 12 hours a day for six days. Before we agree or disagree, let us ask what that does to the other 12 hours." This works when the group is arguing about values and has not looked at the numbers.

You can open with a fact. "Indians already work 47.7 hours a week on average. So the question is what those hours produce." This works when you want to move the group from slogans to evidence.

You can open with the law. "The law caps work at 48 hours a week and treats extra hours as paid overtime by consent. So 70 hours is a choice, not a rule." This works when the group is mixing up an opinion with a legal change.

Concluding the discussion

A good conclusion says that effort matters, and that hours are only one way to measure it. Name the evidence on both sides, and end with a position that a startup founder and an employee could both accept.

"We heard that early-stage firms need intensity, and that output does rise with hours for a while. We also heard that output flattens at around 56 hours and that health risks rise from 55. So long hours can work as a short sprint that people choose, but as a rule for everyone they cost more than they return."

Facts worth quoting

Mistakes to avoid

• Saying 70 hours is law or is being made law. The government told Parliament in February 2025 that no such proposal is under consideration. Say that the debate is about culture and expectations.
• Quoting a study from one setting as proof for another. Pencavel studied factory workers a century ago. Say what it studied, so the panel knows you read it.
• Attacking named people. Murthy, Subrahmanyan and their critics gave reasons. Respond to the reasons and leave out the person.
• Treating hours as the same as productivity. Output per hour is what matters, and the evidence says it falls as hours rise. Keep the two ideas separate.