‘The last two years have been like sitting inside of a time machine’ – 20 quotes of the week from India’s COVID-19 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. 

The loneliness and anxiety associated with the pandemic has sensitised the population to acknowledge the gravity of the problem, even though mental health has been a taboo in Indian society. - Pankaj Jethwani, W Health Ventures

With COVID-19 raging on, even assisted living centres have had to consider safety measures that limit physical contact yet maintain interpersonal relationships. - Deval Delivala, GetSetUp

During the pandemic, radiologists could handle the 10X surge in report creation from the safety of their homes. This was very crucial, as India has only 10,000 radiologists for a population of 130 crore, which makes the ratio abysmal. - Kuldeep Singh Chauhan, Synapsica

The pandemic has wiped out the 20-year gains made in the education sector and has only widened the learning gap. - Divya Gokulnath, Byju’s

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If you had holes and gaps in your supply chain, the pandemic ripped it open. You had to have a strong backend. - Vedang Patel, The Souled Store

The pent-up frustration of being confined at home for months on end gave rise to the phenomenon of ‘revenge travel,’ complemented by trends like workcations and staycations. - Pankaj Parwanda, goSTOPS

People wanted to avoid shared transport and shared mobility, and masses with resources opted for used cars, which brought in a shift and the used cars market grew quite rapidly. - Amit Kumar, OLX Autos

The role of humour, not only in pandemic times, is to take out tension when different views are clashing. There is a spark of humour in every situation, and this might help to prevent discussions on topics like compulsory vaccination from getting too stubborn. - Klaus Pitter, 'Witty World'

The proposals in Budget 2022 serve the purpose of laying out a roadmap for economic revival in India, in a climate still tinged with the challenges posed by the pandemic crisis. - Rajesh K Khosla, AGI glaspac

The budget also recognised the impact of the pandemic on the economy, and the need to contain the damage caused by it. Towards this end, the budget has extended tax benefits to start-ups by another year. - SivaGopal M, MSRcosmos

This [pandemic] shift has further accelerated the adoption of agile and virtual solutions to cater to business needs. - Ashutosh Sharma, Prosus Ventures

Growth in beauty business accelerated in a relatively normalised COVID-19 environment, with a strong revival in the cosmetics category. - Falguni Nayar, FSN E-commerce Ventures

The new consumer impact of a post-COVID-19 world, with an ever-evolving market that offers a challenge for brands as they negotiate it. - Aanan Khurma, Wellversed

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Payment experiences in the product-customer journey have completely transformed the D2C space. - Gaurav Khatri, Noise

The pandemic has hauled us into the future with unprecedented speediness. - Tridib Mukherjee, Games24x7

The last two years have been like sitting inside of a time machine. The kind of change and the accelerated adoption to digital that we might have seen over a 5-10 year horizon is what is actually seen in the last two years. - Shashank Mehta, RazorpayX

[Data] is gradually becoming extensively available now more than ever due to the outbreak of the pandemic as there was a dramatic rise in online interactions and digital adoption. - Manish Godha, Advaiya

The pandemic and the lockdown has not only allowed technology to flourish but has hugely sustained it. - Murali Vaidyanathan, Equitas Small Finance Bank

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[Year in Review 2021] Top ten changemakers of the year

Companies should commit to helping [women entrepreneurs] find their feet, as there's never been a greater need for tech innovation as we look to rebuild a post-pandemic world. -Avnish Sabharwal, Accenture Open Innovation India

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed people to experience colleges and offices from home. - Manish Maheshwari, Invact Metaversity

Due to the pandemic, sectors like edtech, jobtech, and fintech are now on a roll. These are mostly direct-to-consumer (D2C) players offering services. These are large, pan-India plays that can go outside India. - Sanjay Anandaram

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).