‘The uncertainties are likely to continue with new waves of COVID-19’ – 25 quotes of the week from India’s pandemic struggle

Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous edition here). This special series of compilations focuses on India’s COVID-19 struggle. Share these quotes and excerpts with your networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.

See also our pick of Top Quotes of 2021 on Entrepreneurship, Investment, Digital Transformation, Storytelling, The India Opportunity, Pandemic Resilience, Failure Recovery, Design, and Art.

Special attention should be paid to innovations that help households on the brink of poverty deal with their healthcare expenses, for both chronic as well as sudden or acute conditions. - Aditya Sharma, Affordplan

The first half of 2020 experienced a peak acceleration of digital health activity across the world. More importantly, it also had a great impact on the regional healthcare ecosystem. - Nimith Agrawal, DoctCo

With health and wellness taking centre stage, there should be a relaxation of taxes on essential wellness products. - Shilpa Khanna Thakkar, Chicnutrix

The COVID-19 pandemic no doubt wreaked havoc on several businesses, and women-led businesses were no exception. - Roma Priya, Burgeon Law

The uncertainties are likely to continue with new waves of COVID-19 and businesses will experience sudden shifts of opening and closing economies. - Suhail Sameer, BharatPe

COVID-19 actually helped in creating more awareness towards financial stability and how we have to brace for uncertainty. - Archana Elapavuluri, Pickright Technologies

We anticipate that the Union Budget 2022 will include special regulatory measures and tax breaks to aid further growth and consequently prepare the country to brave any other foreseen economic crisis. - Swati Bhargava, CashKaro

The introduction of innovative initiatives like the ‘sandbox schemes’ currently being followed by countries like Thailand and Indonesia will help India build a more resilient tourism economy going forward. - Aloke Bajpai, ixigo

While the current Omicron wave has impacted consumer sentiment for leisure travel from January 2022, we continue to observe demand for domestic essential travel. - Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip

Right now, the commercial real estate market is at a rock bottom due to the pandemic, and so, it is the best time to invest and get appreciation in the next three to five years. - Anuj Mundhra, Nandani Creation

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Intimidated initially during the first few phases of lockdowns, the real estate sector was quick to recover as the pandemic made people understand the importance of owning a home even more. - Akhil Gupta, NoBroker.com

COVID-19 has shown — resilience among entrepreneurs to weather all constraints and continue to overcome, and agility to look at the pandemic as an opportunity to pivot to meet the healthcare needs of millions and the emerging economic and livelihood needs. - Anand Sri Ganesh, NSRCEL

Despite challenges such as lockdowns, the EV sector kept the economy and the people’s lives going. - RK Misra, Yulu

Consumer loyalty has already declined throughout the pandemic, in part, because brands don’t align with their values, but also because limited product availability impacted by ongoing supply chain challenges has shifted the way consumers shop – consumers are becoming more open to buying new brands. - Philip Barry, Icertis

The COVID-19 pandemic drove home the perils of relying purely on physical storefronts for conducting business. - Amit Bansal, SOLV

Amidst the pandemic, ecommerce has become an integral part of India’s retail industry. India has the world's fastest-growing ecommerce and SaaS markets. - Kapil Makhija, Unicommerce

Digitization and the financial services sector has continued to be the backbone of SMBs struggling to adapt to the new normal in 2021, helping them harness the power of the internet and reach new customers across the country. - Harshil Mathur, Razorpay

The last couple of years has pushed the need for hyper digitalization and contactless operating models. This has led to technology innovation at an unprecedented scale. - Ramkumar Narayanan, NASSCOM Product Council

The explosive growth of gaming during the pandemic has displayed that an increased number of netizens have found a new outlet for much-needed connection as they spent time at home. - Sunil Yadav, PlayerzPot Media

The new work-from-home culture has arisen, and it has unquestionably increased the cost of an employee's expenditure. - Vidur Gupta, Spectrum Talent Management

COVID-19 spurred many privacy issues; many workers were given a budget and told to avail themselves of a laptop. - Sumit Srivastava, CyberArk

With the pandemic leading to a global shift from physical to digital spaces, data privacy has become indispensable for cybersecurity and user privacy. - Debayan Gupta, Ashoka University

COVID-19, unfortunately, proved to be a lifetime opportunity for online scammers, fraudsters, and hackers. Owing to the increasing threat vectors, having skilled professionals to counter these attacks happens to be one of the key priorities for organisations globally. - Kunal Bajaj, eSec Forte Technologies

India is going through a digital boom due to the increased adoption of technology arising from COVID-19 led lockdowns. This has forced many businesses to change their ways. - Ashutosh Garg, eightfold.ai

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).