‘The pandemic has brought social entrepreneurship to the forefront’ – 20 quotes from India’s COVID-19 struggle

Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory Media, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week. This special series of compilations focuses on India’s COVID-19 struggle (see last week’s post here). Share these quotes and excerpts with your networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

Post the COVID-19 outbreak, consumer adoption of telemedicine accelerated, and it is now playing a big role in delivering better health outcomes for people. - Prasad Kompalli, mfine

The pandemic was a wake-up call that helped people realise the importance of a good insurance policy. - Sarbvir Singh, PolicyBazaar.com

During COVID-19, many people, especially those with chronic conditions, lost access to their routine healthcare. - Mehak Malik, Uvi Health

In the last two months, there has been a lot of positivity with offices opening and people stepping out although with a lot of caution. - Aravind Sanka, Rapidor

You may slow down but don’t give up. - Ankita Jain, chitra santhe

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The small business community was among the first and the hardest to be hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet in the face of so much adversity, they demonstrated unfathomable resilience. - Archana Vohra, FacebookIndia

The machinery under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act had not been identified as an essential service during the lockdown. - Rekha Sharma, NCW chairperson

The pandemic exposed the lack of sound disaster management strategies, among Indian startups, in a volatile market. - Udai Chopra and Hersh Shah

During the lockdown, ecommerce was adversely affected as deliveries were restricted in containment zones. - Swati Bhargava, EarnKaro

In the lockdown, everyone was looking for new things to entertain themselves. - Kush Desai, NxGn Sports Interactive

COVID pushed people to spend more time on games. And UPI has made the in-game payment simpler. - Kartikeya Shekar, Blume Ventures

During the pandemic, we have found that learners in India focused on learning and upskilling themselves. - Varun Chopra, Eduvanz

With lockdowns making offline education ineffective, adopting online modes to continue learning was the next step enabling e-learning to gain a foothold in the long term. - ARAL

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COVID-19 helped accelerate things to move online. - Sudhir Pai, Magicbricks

The pandemic digitised large institutions much faster than they otherwise would have,” Nadia Sood, CreditEnable

The pandemic compelled many organisations and sectors to embrace technology for business continuity and remote working. - Ambrish Kumar, Zipaworld

If there was one thing that stood out during the early days of the fight against COVID-19 in 2020, it was how technology helped humanity combat a deadly pandemic. And at the core of it all, lies data. - Madhurima Agarwal, NetApp

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated innovation like never before. We’ve seen organisations of all sizes forced to innovate, and the ones that are able to quickly accept and respond to change are those that will survive. – Vivek Wadhwa, ‘From Incremental to Exponential’

The pandemic may have slashed marketing budgets, but it has simultaneously increased startups’ dependence on micro-influencers to shape their marketing strategy and enhance brand equity. - Sameer Chhabra, T-Hub

Empathetic communication, leveraging of technology for customer-centricity, and a sense of giving back to the community have also gained precedence. - Khushboo Sharma Solanki, Zero Gravity Communications

Social entrepreneurship has been bubbling in the last few years, and its benefits are being recognised. However, the pandemic has brought it to the forefront. - Ratna Mehta, Wadhwani FoundationYourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).