‘The advent of coronavirus has been a black swan event’ – 30 quotes from India’s COVID-19 struggle
In this compilation, we present thought-provoking quotes from the week of September 20-26 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.
The current pandemic has provided us with a small preview of what a full-fledged climate crisis could look like in terms of economic and supply chain disruption at a global scale. - Ritu Mehrotra, Booking.com
The pandemic brought unpredictable changes to every business, and the need of the hour was to survive. - Hirdyesh Mordani, MyEasyStore
Limiting the damage that the crisis inflicted was just the first step; our endeavour should be to ensure durable and sustainable growth in the post-pandemic future. - Shaktikanta Das, RBI
Uncertainty got a new name with COVID-19 for our health, life, income, and wealth. While the basic principles remain the same, there are some lessons learnt from this crisis for our health and wealth. - Monika Halan, 'Let's Talk Money'
F&B industry is one of the worst affected sectors because of the ongoing pandemic. – US Mahendar, Hatti Kaapi
With schools shut due to COVID-19, students’ progress has fallen sharply. This cumulative loss of learning in children will invariably have a critical impact on their future. - Manan Khurma, Cuemath
Another generation of women will have to wait for gender parity, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be felt, and the time needed to close the global gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. - NeoGrowth
The impact from the pandemic has taken a particularly hard toll on women, and now, more than ever, we need to get our money act together - and seek autonomy and control over our financial decisions. - Hena Mehta, Basis
By using technology, institutions can proactively monitor the health of their students and staff, take precautionary measures to prevent viral infections and implement robust mechanisms to manage infections when they occur. - Madhavi Shankar, SpaceBasic
The fitness market has changed dramatically over the last year, and we believe the demand for digital fitness training will only continue to grow. - Nikhil Bahel, Elysian Park Ventures
Everybody acknowledges that delivery food is a more sustainable business solution, and consumers are looking for food to be delivered at their doorstep more than going out. - Rashmi Daga, FreshMenu
Digital content consumption has grown exponentially post pandemic, and whetted consumer appetite. Indie cinema is gaining acceptance and there could not be a more opportune time for indie filmmakers to find their footing and grow. - Siddharth Sinha, ABC Talkies
What COVID did was accelerate the (digital transformation) need from ‘nice-to-have' to ‘must-have’. We experienced a digital and cultural transformation accelerated by a decade. - Vala Afshar, Salesforce
In times like COVID (being cautious of the third wave and other viruses that are changing our lifestyles), self-entertainment and virtual socialisation have found an ally in online gaming. - Shahan Sud, IAN
Contactless services in the COVID-19 era needs to be promoted for subscriber convenience and also for ease of doing business. - Department of Telecommunications, India
The global pandemic drove a step function jump in digital transactions for mobile-first small businesses and prosumers. As a result, the need for an easy-to-use mobile-centric platform that enables collection, analysis and sharing of data is more acute than ever. - Dev Khare, Lightspeed
The industrial sector, which is traditionally very slow in adopting technologies due to the fear of disrupting existing processes, is now more receptive to the new technologies already pervasive in the IT world. - Smitha Rao, Utthunga Technologies
In the early phases of Covid, brands were spending about 50 percent of digital marketing budgets on influencers. This is only poised to grow even more. - Manish Aggarwal, Bikano
Post pandemic, car owners are setting up online buying experiences for their customers through apps. - Jatin Ahuja, Big Boy Toyz
Sensex reaching 60,000 today is an indicator of India's growth potential, as well as the way India is emerging as a world leader during COVID period. - Ashishkumar Chauhan, BSE
India provides the most unique ecosystem to cryptotech to play a transformative role in strengthening key priority areas such as healthcare, safety, digital identification, trade and finance, and remittances, and help in addressing pandemic-induced challenges. - Debjani Ghosh, NASSCOM
What works and will work is a B2B2C play, where Kirana stores become an epicentre for hyperlocal delivery. - Abhishek Chauhan, RedSeer
In India, kirana stores are an important part of the economy, supporting millions, and we saw how indispensable they were during the lockdowns. - Akshay Dua, Responsibility Investments
Due to the disruption in the supply chain because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been mounting pressure by dealers to stock up the products. This is not only expensive but also poses a huge risk. - Arbaaz Sha Muzawer, Custom Elements
The pandemic has been truly horrifying but, it must be used as an inflexion point so that we look back to this period as the time when many Indian SME/MSME unicorns were launched, which in turn, can lead to the explosive growth of the Indian economy. - Shiraz Ibrahim, Transteel Seating Technologies
Festive shopping can really be a mood lifter when most kids are celebrating festive occasions at home. - Sonal Kumar, Myntra
We believe that the 2021 online festive sales will continue to ride on strong tailwinds of greater consumer digital adoption supported by an increasingly positive macro and consumption sentiment after the second COVID wave has passed. - Mrigank Gutgutia, RedSeer
COVID-19 has severely affected the livelihood of more than 100 million people across the world, who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. However, the urge to travel is innate to every human being and we are seeing strong consumer demand as vaccinations pick up. Arun Bagaria, TravClan
It has become vital to keep a broader perspective while drafting policies, primarily with regard to three aspects: how we work, where we work, and the technologies we use. - Sreelakshmi Venugopal, ESPL
In times to come, there will be a right mix of office days and work from home (WFH) days with companies adapting to the WFH culture deeply to keep their employees safe - and achieve some savings by reducing infrastructure costs. - Rohan Joshi, Wolken Software
The advent of coronavirus has been a black swan event in the history of the modern world, which forced individuals, startups, and societies to adjust to a new normal globally. - Deepak Pandit, BML Munjal University
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).
