Crisis, opportunity, transformation – 20 quotes on pandemic resilience from TechSparks 2021
From survive to thrive, we present 20 quotes on India’s COVID-19 recovery, from YourStory’s premier TechSparks 2021 conference.
Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our recent articles. Share these gems and insights from the TechSparks 2021 speakers with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.
In this special collection of quotes from YourStory’s TechSparks 2021 coverage, we present insights on pandemic resilience, business pivots, and digital transformation. See also our earlier quotes compilations from conference editions in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.
Check out our profiles of the Tech50 startups of 2021, and Tech30 startups over the years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.
Pandemic has taught us many things and among those, it has taught us how resilient Indian SMBs are and how amazing their journeys have been to digital. - Archana Vohra, Facebook India
Our biggest learning from the pandemic is to never give up and make an opportunity out of every crisis. - Rajnish Kumar, ixigo
From internal communications using mobile technology among doctors, healthcare workers, and the nationwide vaccination drive; nothing could have been possible if tech and digital adoption was ignored. - GS Naveen Kumar, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Health and education are two areas where India needs to over-invest in the coming years as it is a starved sector, and it will definitely uplift the country. - Anup Jain, Orios Venture Partners
I think what demonetisation did for online payment companies, the pandemic did for online commerce. - Yash Dayal, Zivame
While larger companies were operating from home, local kiranas, chemists and other SMBs were functioning on the frontlines. - Dinesh Agarwal, IndiaMart
With the kind of force with which the pandemic has hit us, I think people in countries will need to trust each other on the bank of some trust which comes from not what we say but what our devices say to each other. - Rohit Bhayana, Lumis Partners
The one good thing that came out of the pandemic is the realisation that people wanted to come forward to contribute and help in whatever way they can. - Kunal Kapoor, Ketto
During the COVID-19 pandemic, banks realised that they have to be nimble, and offer ease of doing transactions like fintechs, while fintechs realised they need to partner with banks to reach the mass of customers that banks already have. - Amol Pai, SBI
[The pandemic] has had an impact on how our software developers and IT practitioners also think about innovation. - Rajat Pandit, Google Cloud
That hustle, that focus on problem solving is what we saw in COVID – it can be replicated in many other areas going forward. - Mohit Bhatnagar, Sequoia India
Some of the work that has happened in the period of urgency, when there was a crisis and people were open to new ideas, has created a roadmap and playbook that can be replicated going forward. - Sandeep Singhal, Nexus Venture Partners
We've learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic that customers now want to access financial products in a completely contactless manner. - Adhil Shetty, Bank Bazaar
People will do physical events when the experience is critical. Rest of the content strategy will move to virtual events. - Vaibhav Jain, Hubilo
It's going to be a very different office feel…. We are going to (use) digital tools more and collaborate through the internet as we kind of have been through this pandemic. - Cal Henderson, Slack
For the first time, people took work from home as a legit format of working. Earlier, it was considered a hobby to work from home, and ‘serious work’ could be done only at the office. - Seema Chaturvedi, AWE Funds
Almost every level -- from students and teachers to administrators and parents, everybody has somehow been forced to adopt the technology. - Navin Mittal, Government of Telangana
The future belongs to those companies who take care of the health and wellness of their employees. - Paneesh Rao, Mindtree
The world has seen COVID. But a larger underlying pandemic is non-communicable diseases. - Dr Sangita Reddy, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise
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 Suman Singh
