‘Pandemic fatigue is not an excuse to not take precautions’ – 20 quotes from India’s COVID-19 struggle
In this compilation, we present thought-provoking quotes from the week of August 16-22 that frame India’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic.
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.
We may have lost nearly 4-5 million people in India due to the COVID pandemic. - Madhukar Pai, epidemiologist
Post-COVID-19, children are going to come back with more trauma, and there's going to be more anxiety. - Sucheta Bhat, Dream a Dream
In recent times, digital health in India has significantly moved from ‘good to have’ to ‘must have’ — all because of this pandemic. - Ashvin Chadha, Anicut Angel Fund
Growing adoption of technology-led solutions in healthcare due to the ongoing pandemic has helped in giving a significant push to the online consultation market in India. - Aryaman Tandon, Praxis Global Alliance
Pandemic fatigue is not an excuse to not take precautions. - R Kishore Kumar, Cloudnine
While COVID-19 may go at some point in time, more viruses could come in the future so everybody needs to start taking care of their health. - Vishal Gondal, GOQii Smart Healthcare
The rising internet penetration in India has tremendously contributed to the rapid growth of MSMEs, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. - Vijay K R, Deloitte India
The Indian e-retail market saw a 25 percent growth despite a two-month national lockdown and multiple prolonged disruptions in regional pockets over the year. - Bain & Company and Flipkart report
India’s logistics space is vibrant and dynamic. In the current pandemic scenario, the importance of the sector has grown manifold. - Vikrant Sibal, IIFL AMC
Through 2020, India’s startups have established their resilience and value creation potential to the best investors globally. - Siddarth Pai, 3one4 Capital
Despite challenges induced by the pandemic, we have seen a strong response from kiranas who are now realising the benefits of digitisation and warming up to ecommerce as the go-to means of purchase. - Adarsh Menon, Flipkart
The salon industry has been badly impacted by the ongoing pandemic. However, it has also triggered a need to adopt digital solutions fast to save costs and allocate their current resources better. - Rohan Singh, Glamplus
MSMEs will play a significant role in reviving India’s economic growth and achieving its vision of becoming more self-reliant. - Amitabh Kant, Niti Aayog
Amidst the pandemic gloom over the last few months, success stories of India’s growing breed of unicorns (startups that cross $1 billion in valuation) brought something to cheer about. - Manish Dalal, Newfold Digital
In this newly emerging landscape, there are entirely new whitespaces that are opening up. "Work from home" is one such space. - Rajeev Suri, Orios Venture Partners
The pandemic has played the role of a catalyst for the growth of cloud accounting globally. - Vikas Chadha, GI Outsourcing
The ecommerce industry found its feet in the pandemic much faster than any other sector. - Sugam Jain, Shyplite
The pandemic induced lockdown created a rapid shift in consumer shopping and payment habits, which has accelerated the need for BNPL. - Gaurav Hinduja, Capital Float
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In this ever-changing world, pivots become very essential to stay in the game. The success of the pivot depends on the alignment of the business with long-term trends created or intensified by the change. - Ratna Mehta, Wadhwani Foundation
During the COVID-19 pandemic, VC investors are evincing interest in startups across themes such as ecommerce, social media and social networking, food delivery, edtech, and digital payments. - Aurojyoti Bose, GlobalData
Entrepreneurs that adapt will be the ones that survive, not only through the current times of uncertainty but for any future crises as well. - Vivek Bindra, Bada Business
The most important lesson from the pandemic is to build a business that is light on assets. - Amit Kumar, MSMEx
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).
Edited by Teja Lele