'Love staring at wife; wife loves staring at me': Anand Mahindra, Adar Poonawalla weigh in on L&T chairman's 90-hour workweek call

Both the chairman of the Mahindra Group and the owner of Serum Insitute of India emphasized the importance of work-life balance and interpersonal relations in becoming capable leaders.

As the debate continues to rage over how many hours a week Indians should work, Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group, has come out with a witty reply to L&T chairman S N Subrahmanyan's call for a 90-hour workweek.

"My wife is wonderful. I love staring at her," the Mahindra Group chairman told youth in attendance at the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue 2025, a rejoinder to Subrahmanyan's "How long can you stare at your wife" question, as per a report by The Economic Times.

Mahindra, however, did not stop there, and explained that the quality of work, and not quantity is what matters.

"This is what I wanted to avoid. I don’t want it to be about time. I don’t want it to be about quantity. Ask me about the quality of my work. Don’t ask me how many hours I have worked," the 69-year-old tycoon said.

"I have huge respect for Narayana Murthy and others. So let me not get this wrong, of course. But I have to say something, I think this debate is in the wrong direction," Mahindra went on to say, adding, "My point is we have to focus on the quality of work, not on the quantity of work. So it's not about 48, 40 hours, it's not about 70 hours, it's not about 90 hours."

The Mahindra Group chairman also spoke about the importance of work-life balance in personal and career development, saying, "If you don’t, if you’re not spending time at home, if you’re not spending time with friends, if you’re not reading, if you don’t have time to reflect, how will you bring the right inputs into making a decision?"

Mahindra further explained that exposure to art and culture and diverse disciplines is what makes a good leader.

"That is why I’m for liberal arts. I think even if you are an engineer, even if you’re an MBA, you must study art, you must study culture. Because I think you make better decisions when you have a whole brain when you are informed about arts and culture, that’s when you’ll make a good decision," the 69-year-old said.

Mahindra wasn't the only one from the business community to speak out on Sunday, with Serum Institute of India (SII) chairman Adar Poonawalla weighing in as well.

While Mahindra said that he loved staring at his wife, Poonwalla flipped the tables, writing, "even my wife thinks I'm wonderful, she loves staring at me on Sundays." The SII chairman also tagged Mahindra in his post on X, adding, "Quality of work over quantity always."

Earlier, RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh Goenka had also given his two cents, calling the idea of a 90-hour workweek a "recipe for burnout".

"90 hours a week? Why not rename Sunday to ‘Sun-duty’ and make ‘day off’ a mythical concept! Working hard and smart is what I believe in, but turning life into a perpetual office shift? That’s a recipe for burnout, not success. Work-life balance isn’t optional, it’s essential. Well, that’s my view!," Goenka wrote in a post on X a few days back, hashtagging it with #WorkSmartNotSlave.

Beyond the business community also, reactions have poured in, with actor Deepika Padukone harshly criticising Subrahmanyan's idea.

Taking to Instagram, the actor shared news about the L&T chairman's statement, and wrote "Shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements." She also hashtagged it with #mentalhealthmatters.

The workweek debate in India initially exploded after Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy called for a 70-hour workweek.