Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal pitched India's workforce to Dutch business leaders, telling them Indians are eager to work hard, as he sought investment during a visit to the Netherlands.
"Indians want to work hard. Nobody in India will tell you it's five o'clock. And certainly no Indian will ever remind you it's the weekend," Goyal said jokingly.
He also said Dutch businesses would grow in India to a scale they never would have imagined. The comment was made at the India-Netherlands Business Forum in The Hague, where he also spoke of the benefits of food-processing investment for farmers.
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Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted India's work ethic while pitching the country as an investment destination to Dutch business leaders. “Indians want to work hard. Nobody in India will tell you it's five o'clock. And certainly no Indian will ever remind you it's the weekend,” Goyal said, underscoring his pitch for India as a destination for global businesses and investors.
— NDTV Profit News (@NDTVProfit) October 28, 2026
The remarks came on a two-day trip on 25 and 26 October.
According to Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Goyal toured the Port of Rotterdam and met Foreign Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma and Economic Affairs Minister Heleen Herbert.
He co-chaired the India-Netherlands Business Forum, which was attended by about 200 business representatives, with a delegation of about 60 from India.
He also met executives from ASML, Nexperia, Power2X and Ingka Group, which runs IKEA, and held a roundtable with CXOs of 15 Dutch companies. His message to them was that they should "invest, co-manufacture and co-innovate in India", the release said.
The visit builds on the relationship's recent upgrade. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit on 16-17 May, India and the Netherlands decided to elevate ties to a Strategic Partnership.
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Modi said then that more than 300 Dutch companies operate in India and called the Netherlands India's largest European investor. India's ambassador to the Netherlands, Kumar Tuhin, said this week that the Netherlands is India's second-largest trading partner in the EU.
The India-EU Free Trade Agreement is central to the pitch. India and the EU concluded negotiations on the agreement on 27 January 2026. The ministry said Goyal's talks covered semiconductors, green hydrogen, clean energy, critical minerals and advanced manufacturing, with a view to using the FTA to open new trade and investment opportunities.
The five o'clock remark drew criticism online. User Sincere Dibya wrote that Goyal had “pitched Indian workers as people who have surrendered the right to rest. Not as skilled labour. As servile labour.”
The post added that the ILO “flags India among the world's most overworked nations” and asked, “When did exhaustion become patriotism?”
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Another user, Sangha, accused Goyal of offering “the slave mindset of Indian employers, to the world” and “selling it as a virtue to global investors”.
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