An Aussie workplace expert has applauded a former CEO over his controversial comments about work-life balance and said workers need to get back the work ethic they had “years and years ago”. Indian software billionaire Narayana Murthy drew backlash after he suggested that young people should be willing to work 70 hours a week to boost the country’s economy.

Murthy, the co-founder and former CEO of IT consulting firm Infosys, has now doubled down on his remarks and said he was “not going to take it back”. The 78-year-old said he was “proud of having worked very hard” and said he had put in 14-hour days, six-and-a-half days per week until he retired.

“I don't believe in work-life balance,” he recently told CNBC's Global Leadership Summit.

Recruitment expert Roxanne Calder told Yahoo Finance she thought it was “admirable” for Murthy to speak up and said he highlighted some of the “frustration and pushback” leaders were experiencing.

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“Hard work doesn’t have to be a bad thing and I think too often when we use wellbeing or work-life balance it often comes in the same sentence as we are working too hard or too long hours,” the EST10 founder said.

“I think quite rightly one person’s work-life balance and wellbeing is vastly different to someone else.

“I think it’s dangerous to say we should only work X amount of hours per week because how do we stretch? How do we learn?”

Calder said she didn’t agree with Murthy's comment that workers should be putting in 70 hours a week and thought work-life balance was still important. But she said workers shouldn't be unwilling to work outside their contracted hours.

“70 hours personally I think is too much. However, do I think 9 to 5 or four days a week for a young worker is also good? No, I don’t," she said.

“I think people are doing themselves a disservice by doing those sorts of hours. For younger workers, I’d really encourage them not to be slaving but absolutely to be applying themselves.

“I think we should be encouraging people to work, whether that’s work hard, work long, whatever it might be.”

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Murthy added that he was a "little bit disappointed" when India moved from a six-day week to a five-day week.

"I think in this country we have to work very hard because there is no substitute for hard work," Murthy said.