Health, economy, technology – 20 quotes from India’s COVID-19 struggle

Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, 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.

There is a high chance that India will be hit by the third wave. Most likely, it will affect the population that’s not vaccinated. – Vivek Tiwari, Medikabazaar

All the vaccines do a very good job at preventing hospitalisation and death and probably that's the most important thing to think about from a public health perspective. - Penny Moore, SAICD

We must ensure the community are protected via vaccinations and the continued use of masks, hand-washing and physical distancing. - Feroz Abbas Khan

More than 62 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country, but still we have to be careful, be vigilant. - PM Modi

We will have to ensure that COVID protocols and SOPs from the government are followed to ensure the safety of our children. - Shashi Banerjee, Shiv Nadar School

Since the onset of the pandemic, the country has witnessed a steep fall in employment. The worst-hit was the blue-collar workforce, which struggled to retain jobs or secure opportunities. - Pravin Agarwala, BetterPlace

Vaccination is going to be the key element that will create comfort in the minds of travellers. - Aloke Bajpai, ixigo

The highly contagious nature of the COVID virus as well as the overwhelmed hospitals have acted as a deterrent for people to seek in-patient care and physical consults, where possible. - Divya Laroyia, MyHealthcare

 [The pandemic] has opened our eyes towards human weaknesses as well as graciousness. - Shobha Broota

Apparently, multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain. Being part of multiple discussions on different topics in different chat groups simultaneously (multitasking) has gone up exponentially post WFH. - Nithin Kamath, Zerodha

The furniture and appliances rental space is one of the most resilient asset classes for investors, as consumers are switching to subscription-driven models during the pandemic. - Hardik Shah, TradeCred

With the pandemic, people have realised that home is the safest place and that is why ‘buying a home’ sentiment is possibly at its peak. - Vikas Wadhawan, Housing.com

Due to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, exams were postponed, which forced the educational industry and the assessment markets to expedite their push towards remote exams. - Gurpreet Singh, Awign

Thanks to the acceleration of adoption of digital tools due to the pandemic, mentoring sessions can now be conducted from the comfort of your homes, without the pressure or distraction of external factors. - Madhurima Agarwal, NetApp

Cloud adoption has witnessed an accelerated adoption during the pandemic as enterprises focused on building hybrid work models, collaboration infrastructure and business continuity. - Debjani Ghosh, NASSCOM

The pandemic has redefined the listening space in India, making it well on its way to becoming one of the world's leading music markets. - Jyoti Handa, Moodagent

The pandemic has put the limelight on digital transformation. Organisations around the world are looking at tech solutions to remain competitive. - Arjun Nagarajan, Syook

The change in user behaviour with COVID has created a massive tailwind. For example, contactless payment and digital payments has seen massive growth, even with street vendors. - Shripati Acharya, Prime Venture Partners

The pandemic has led businesses to rethink their entire payment management processes. Digitisation has helped businesses move from offline to online in order to sell their products or continue servicing their customer. - Akash Sinha, Cashfree

The current COVID-19 crisis has further accelerated the demand for intelligence technologies to enable new ways of working. - Sharad Kotagi, IDC Asia/Pacific

YourStory 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).