Larsen and Toubro’s chairman S N Subrahmanyan, has been heavily criticized for making the claim that employees ought to work 90 hours in a week which also covers Sundays.

The company FTO also along with Subrahmanyan was criticized by the netizens including the actress Deepika Padukone. She shared her thoughts on this matter via her Instagram account stating, “Shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements. #MentalHealthMatters.”

Let’s discuss SN Subrahmanyam’s life in detail:

On March 16, 1960, he was born in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai region. He attended Kurukshetra Regional Engineering College and subsequently earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Pune, India.

In 1984, Subrahmanyan began his career with L&T as a project engineer. In addition to this, he earned a postgraduate business degree from London Business School.

As one of the few who has been able to gain from the experience of other business managers, L&T took on additional responsibilities across various business sectors and entered the board in 2011.

Subrahmanyan began working for L&T in October 2023 as the Chairman and Managing Director after holding various other positions, including Managing Director and President, Chief Executive Officer.

As stated on the L&T website, following Subrahmanyan's path overseeing the firm, several successful projects such as the Statue of Unity, ITER, Dual Feed Crackers, Offshore Platforms, K9 Vajra, Atal Setu and Ayodhya Ram Mandir, amongst others were accomplished.

Besides being the CFLI India co-founder, he is also one of the nine co-founders of the CFLI India, which advocates for the country’s sustainable development, and is also the chairman of several business organizations.

Other than stints at vast numerous Government institutions, he is also the regular honorary chairperson of the Board of Governors at the National Institute of Technology - Rourkela.

For two years Subrahmanyan was appointed as the Chairman of the National Safety Council in India by the Union Ministry of Labor and Employment in September of 2021.

Awards and Accolades

Subrahmanyan is also the recipient of a number of awards and honors. The Association of Consulting Engineers of India has bestowed upon him the Eminent Engineer award in 2024.

Moreover, in March 2022, he was ranked as one of the best CEOs in India by Business Today-PwC India, in the category of Best CEOs in Finance and Engineering Infrastructure. In October 2023, he appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine as India's best CEO, cementing his already established reputation widely.

Subrahmanyan was named the Elite CEO (Sell Side) while he also ranked 3rd in the Overall standings in the All-Asia Executive Team Survey by the Institution Investor. For the firm he serves as a Director for he was conferred the Leading Engineering Personality by the Institution of Engineers (India) in 2014.