9 June 1958 Nehru had invited attention to the observations of Gunnar Myrdal, a well-known economist: An eminent foreign economist was comparing the measure of work done in India to the quality and measure in Europe or America. He pointed out that ‘we compared very unfavourably’. First of all, we have too may holidays, secondly our hours of work are not adequate and thirdly, we do not work intensively, and so as a result we produce much less than is done in many Western countries. This applies, he said, not merely to plants and factories, but all along the line, including agriculture, our
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