‘The past couple of pandemic-induced years have had their run’ – 35 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 pandemic has further established that the patients, as well as providers, are looking for affordable healthcare that allows patients to pay for comfortably, as well as allows for healthcare organisations to run commercially viable establishments. - Sunil Raheja, IKS Health

The lockdowns and physical restrictions put in place made healthcare organisations, healthcare professionals, and patients realise the importance of digital health solutions like telemedicine. - Vikram Thaploo, Apollo Hospitals Group

The pandemic has had a visibly damaging impact on the mental well-being of people. The situation got compounded as there was another epidemic we were facing simultaneously – the mental health epidemic which was global in nature. - Harshit Jain, Doceree

It was imperative to control the rising hidden pandemic of mental and emotional health issues. - Chayan Mukhopadhyay, Qandle

As a result of the pandemic, a lot of entrepreneurs had stepped forward to address the challenge of rising mental health issues in India. The cases of depression and anxiety disorders witnessed an increase of about 25 percent globally, and 35 percent in India alone. - Tarun Gupta, LISSUN

Combining exercise with being in nature can be grounding and rooting. It is challenging in the times that we are in now. - Deepa Kannan, PFNR

The Union Budget prioritises economic growth, as the Indian economy inches towards normalcy after surviving the recent Omicron wave. - Rohit Manglik, EduGorilla

Since the economy is gradually finding its way back towards normalcy, with necessary budget sponsorship, it could finally recalibrate its focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, and invention. - Layak Singh, Artivatic.AI

The past couple of pandemic-induced years have had their run. The next fiscal promises to be an uninterrupted galloping time for the Indian economy. - Rohit Kapoor, INSEA

Despite the unanticipated third wave and partial lockdowns, the Indian economy has recorded its highest gross GST in January 2022. - Sujeet Kumar Mishra, Winni

For Indian MSMEs to truly succeed, this kind of hand-holding as offered in the Union Budget 2022 would make it easy for them to embrace global challenges and changes, without which their survival would become difficult. - Pushkar Mukewar, Drip Capital

The COVID-induced gap in learning needs to be addressed on priority and edtech platforms should continue to ensure that students receive uninterrupted learning in such challenging times. - Vamsi Krishna, Vedantu

The edtech sector was put on steroids like no other. - Pawas Tyagi, Edustoke

While online learning was inevitable due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would never be as effective as offline learning, which brings out the best in students in terms of learning outcome and performance. Online education can at best only play a supplementary role in education. - Sumeet Mehta, LEAD

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What initially started as a result of the global lockdown [digital education], has now been acknowledged as the probable solution to the difficulty of accessing higher education in the country where 65 percent of the population resides in the rural region. - Piyush Bhartiya, AdmitKard

Building a digital university will overcome the barriers in classroom teaching, especially during the pandemic, and provide universal learning to students across the country. - Anil Nagar, Adda247

The Digital University is a great initiative, especially, in this pandemic situation as there is a lot of uncertainty around it. - Vivek Jain, Naukri FastForward

After the pandemic hit, the education sectors and the EdTech platforms were in need of these [vernacular education] tools so that the nation's children would not miss any bit of education. - Mridul Ranjan Sahu, CuriousJr

[F]ocusing on India's lower-income segment and underbanked population and offering them instant loans has become a pivotal need. - Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit

India’s fintech system was a silver lining in the difficult times of lockdown and the pandemic. - Navneet Gupta, YPay

The whole population, especially in smaller towns, was in trauma, and most of them have lost or left everything they had till then. - Manu Gupta, SEEDS

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In a bid to support this segment during the pandemic, the government extended the tax incentives it offers to eligible startups by another year until March 31, 2023. - Mahankali Srinivas Rao, T-Hub

In the aftermath of the second wave of the pandemic, nearly four out of 10 MSMEs confirmed that they pivoted their business models to survive. - Nitin Sharma, CredAble

The first [COVID-19] wave hit different supplier countries at different times. - Apeksha Gupta, John Jacobs

Despite being affected by COVID-19, tech companies had significant benefits. There has been a focus on COVID-19-led technological and digital adoption like ecommerce, edtech, and there have been several beneficiaries. - GV Ravishankar, Sequoia Capital India

The pandemic also accelerated digitalisation efforts across industries – from retail to banking and financial services – creating more sales opportunities for technology providers. - Runki Goswami Xebia

The conditions created by the pandemic have significantly impacted how marketers and their audiences communicate with each other. As a result, a new era of marketing is ushering itself in at a swift pace. - Sayantan Dasgupta, Gramener

In these times of uncertainty, with remote working modules stretching further than expected and corporations opting for a hybrid home-office model, most organisations are leaning on their digital strategies for effective marketing. - Amitt Sharma, VDO.AI

Features like virtual backgrounds, which was not so essential in 2019, became one of the major features that determined the adaptability of a martech product. - Kaushal Thakkar, INFIDIGIT

The introduction of innovative initiatives like e-passports will boost security and will enhance the convenience of international travellers by cutting down long queues at immigration counters. - Aloke Bajpai, ixigo

International travel has been severely impacted by the pandemic, which is why we are pleased with the introduction of e-passports with embedded chips. - Rikant Pittie, EaseMyTrip

The [travel] sector which generates almost 8 percent of overall employment in the country, and has borne the brunt of two consecutive years of down cycle during the pandemic was expecting more immediate relief to stimulate demand and to prevent further job losses. - Rajesh Magow, MakeMyTrip

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).