'No Country Has Beaten Poverty With Freebies': Narayan Murthy On Direct Cash Transfer

Narayan Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys, has been in the news for his comments on the direction India has to take, particularly with regards to the working hours of its labour force.

Freebies Don't Help

In some cases, Murthy has compared India and China, and urged stakeholders to take lessons from China's purported growth story.

This time, Murthy took aim at Freebies or welfare schemes, which have greater footprint in India, that probably in another developing nation.

He pushed his criticism of freebies and welfare schemes, particularly DBT, or Direct Benefit Transfers; DBT has often been argued by some economists as a requirement in a developing economy like India.

Economist have argued for putting money in people's hands to increase consumption.

Innovation and Jobs

However, Murthy holds a contrarian opinion. While speaking at a Mumbai event, Murthy said that freebies have never helped any nation come out of poverty.

While addressing young entrepreneurs at the Tiecon Mumbai 2025 event, Murthy expressed worries about India's cash transfers to 80 crore people, he urged entrepreneurs to create avenues to create jobs.

Murthy urged entrepreneurs to focus on building businesses, and they focus on generating employment in India.

70-Hour Theory

Previously, Murthy has spoked extensively about the labour force, and his expectation from India' young workforce.

He has controversially pioneered the 70-hour-workweek idea. Murthy in the past has defended this thought, and said that it is important for Indians to work for longer hours for India to grow.

Even in this regard, Murthy has compared India with the likes of China and Japan.

Murthy's comments, while have had a few takers, many of them have criticised him for not paying equal importance to the well-being of the employees and for not laying emphasis on work-life balance.

He, however found support in L&T chair SN Subrahmanyan, who advocated for a 90-hour workweek, making some controversial comments in the regard.