CEO Talk About ‘Unreliable Work Ethic’ Of Average Indian Employee

Optifye.ai, a company founded by Indian entrepreneurs Vivaan Baid and Kushal Mohta, developed a system to track workers and provide productivity data to factory managers. The invention received backlash, with many users calling it a ‘dystopian’ product. However, another Indian-American entrepreneur, Hari Raghavan, defended the invention, criticising the work ethic of Indian employees. He suggested that they often require constant supervision. He added that in India, most people will agree with the need for such a tracking system, as managers are often required to supervise workers closely to ensure tasks are completed.

Taking to X, Hari wrote, “Look, the factory monitoring video was cringe but, I grew up in India and I don’t think y’all understand how unreliable the work ethic of the average Indian employee is. I don’t think it’s an accident that the company has a bunch of Indian founders and my guess is that they’re targeting the manufacturing base in India. If you show that video to literally anyone, in almost any walk of life in India, they will nod furiously and say ‘Yes this is what we need. ’”

“If you are managing a group of workers in India, you have to breathe down every single person’s neck every 10 minutes and then, if you’re lucky, they will get about half as much done as an average US worker. I interned at a bunch of companies across India and the US. The same exact work would take: 2 months at BNP Paribas Chennai, 1 month at Citi Bombay, 2 weeks at SAP Palo Alto, 3 days at BCG Chicago. Not kidding. Literally 10x less efficient,” Hari Raghavan explained.

The entrepreneur shared a personal example to explain his point. He mentioned that when his parents were building their house in Chennai, they faced delays because workers sometimes didn’t show up. Some disappeared for days due to drinking, while others left for their hometowns without notice. He felt frustrated due to the lack of professionalism and claimed that “I might never go to India again because I can’t deal with it.”