‘There is renewed urgency for large-scale reskilling efforts’ – 25 quotes from India’s COVID-19 struggle
In this compilation, we present thought-provoking quotes from the week of September 6-12 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 global pandemic is also giving rise to a new consumer behaviour called “wellness rebound,” where they are becoming more health-conscious and striving towards regaining their health soon after recovering from an illness. - Alankar Saxena, UCS Wellness
Ayurveda has now become a lifestyle. People use herbal products in their daily lives and with the pandemic putting focus on preventive healthcare, the penetration is only going to grow. - Sanchit Sharma, Ayouthveda
With work-from-home, people are choosing the beverage they sip on throughout the day, and they’re generally more inclined to pick healthier options such as green teas, or herbal concoctions. - Snigdha Manchanda, Tea Trunk
Historically, employee health insurance and wellness have just been a checkbox item for corporations. The pandemic has changed that. - Saransh Garg, Nova Benefits
Given that MSMEs form the backbone of the national economy too, it is in the nation’s interest to support their sustained revival for driving greater employment generation and ensuring a faster revival of India’s economy. - Akash Anand, DEERIKA
Susceptibility of agriculture to natural disasters like drought, floods, cyclones, storms, landslides, earthquakes, etc. is a very well-known phenomenon but, epidemic and pandemic in recent times have compounded the negative effects on the produce and farmer income. - Manglesh R. Yadav, NITI Aayog
With the pandemic and lockdown, remote working helped to access customers and talent from these cities, and create many more innovative startups — building from Tier-II cities, for the Tier-II city problems/needs. - Padmaja Ruparel, Indian Angel Network
The wedding pattern has been changing in India since the last few years and the pandemic only accelerated the pace. People now want premium and luxury weddings. - Prerana Agarwal Saxena, Theme Weavers Designs
Pubs that had employed women bouncers earlier to safeguard their female clientele suddenly didn’t require them anymore. - Mehrunissa Shaukat Ali
Women have also led the way in growing communities and rallying resources, creating 2.7X more COVID-19-related groups than men, with four times more members. - Archana Vohra, Facebook India
For the food industry, [hiring] is about 52 percent up and for retail it is 39 percent up from the previous year, though we are still not back to pre-pandemic levels. - Sashi Kumar, Indeed India
Because of the pandemic, there is increased receptivity to digital solutions, which can simplify growth for micro, small and medium businesses in India. - Amit Bansal, SOLV
As the year progressed, it became clear that sectors like edtech, fintech, SaaS, and healthtech would become more prominent amongst investors as they demonstrated resiliency. - Nakul Saxena, LetsVenure
With the world going through the impact of external changes, it has now become even more imperative to bring in real-time visibility, optimisation, and transparency in the supply chain. - Sanket Sheth, Elixia Tech
The pandemic has effectively brought about a substantial change in Warehouse Management Systems and accelerated their adoption – right from material flow to processes and storage technologies. - Saahil Goel, Shiprocket
Since March 2020 when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, we have witnessed an acceleration of digital adoption with city governments harnessing the potential of smart connected technologies, to devise pandemic mitigation strategies to protect citizens. - Sridhar Gadhi, Quantela
With the pandemic outbreak, audio is now back in our lives - in the form of podcasts. However, the real impact it can make in education is still missing at large. - Chitman Kaur, HeyCloudy
With cinema screens remaining out of bounds for a prolonged period, viewers have become addicted to OTT video streaming, and that is unlikely to change soon. - Subhasish Gupta, Brightcove
Due to COVID, the time we spend at home has reached record highs and there is a need to ensure that our home life support systems are always running. - Sunitha Ramaswamy, LetsVenture
Subscriptions have been seeing exponential growth ever since the pandemic set in. Every business, if possible, wants subscription revenues since that gives revenue visibility and predictability. - Adithya Bharadwaj, Axilor
As homes continue to be the centre of everything, there has been an increased momentum in the home interiors category. - Srinath Srinivasan, Oman India Joint Investment Fund
Two years into the pandemic, after spending the majority of time at their home, homeowners want to invest more in decor items that don’t clutter their space. - Niraj Johri, Casa Décor
Diversify your portfolio. It is one of the best ways to strengthen your investment during a pandemic. - Pranjal Kamra, Finology
2020-21 has been a rollercoaster ride for us. - Sruthi Kannan, Cisco LaunchPad
For corporate communications, it has become more important than ever to show emotion, compassion, and human connection. - Marybeth Sandell, What's Your Story?
With the pandemic widening the skill gaps, there is renewed urgency for large-scale reskilling efforts. - Raghav Gupta, Coursera
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 Megha Reddy