‘Ecommerce received a significant nudge to go digital’ – 20 quotes 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.

The pandemic has resulted in severe disruptions in industrial production and growth by severely undermining the supply chains. - Pradeep Multani, PHDCCI

The pandemic was merciless for everyone. Every single person must have been affected to some extent. - Sujata Sejekan, 'Femme' exhibition

Even though the pandemic shows some signs of waning off in India and abroad, recruiters and job seekers still have their task cut out. - Amitt Sharma, Jnee

The pandemic did make artisans suffer for a short while, but it also helped them grow in that tough phase. - Sumiran Pandya, Gaatha

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The Indian economy is on an optimistic growth trajectory this last quarter and we are certain that this year, India will finally bounce back completely from the impact of the pandemic. - Manas Singh, apna.co

Amidst the global pandemic, India has found its innate strength to brave the storm and focus on developing its domestic ecosystem, to support both the Indian and the global markets. - Deepak Sood, ASSOCHAM

This big thrust to local manufacturing and self-employment in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic has done wonders. A large number of youths, women, and migrants were prompted to take up self-employment activities under PMEGP. - Vinai Kumar Saxena, KVIC

Those in the direct selling sector adapted to the new normal more easily. - Gautam Bali, Vestige Marketing

The direct selling industry has proved that it cannot just stand but help overcome any kind of economic crisis in the country. - Sujit Jain, Netsurf Network

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[Year in Review 2021] How women entrepreneurs pivoted during the pandemic and saw tangible results

Once the pandemic struck, we were forced to go back to the drawing board because the entire commercial design and build industry had come to a standstill. - Kunal Sharma, Flipspaces

As the pandemic raged on, we understood that buying comfortable clothing has been the most common change in people’s fashion habits over the last year-and-a-half. - Khushboo Sethi, Jisora

We had to pivot to the online model as our revenues had come down by one-fifth. - Rajesh Panda, Corporate Gurukul

The crisis has validated the strength of our business model and its resilience under the pressure of a global pandemic. - Seema Prem, FIA Global

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[Year in Review] Meet these Indian women who used social media to drive change and social impact

Given work-from-home and the difficulties we were facing overall as a group, we saw some level of attrition. - Phalgun Kompalli, upGrad

The dealer network came to a complete standstill for one and a half years. - Sonali Aggarwal, Sunbaby

We partnered with DarwinAI, and developed a new AI model to detect COVID-19 in CT scans with 96 percent accuracy across a wide and diverse number of scenarios. - Vishal Dhupar, NVIDIA

Over the past 2 years, we have had to rigorously adapt almost every quarter, they say that the startup journey is a bumpy roller-coaster ride. - Rahul Meena, Treflo

We just focused on creating an online buzz and as soon as logistics were solved, we started shipping to our customers. - Deepti Alapati, Pulp

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Opening markets and mindsets: What to expect from India’s femtech sector in 2022 and beyond

With a nudge from the pandemic, we have already been witnessing explosive growth and fascinating levels of engagement with both existing and emerging creators. - Rahul Chowdhri, Stellaris Venture Partners

A doctor needs to go digital. That is the need of the hour. - Devansh Swarup, Paperplane

Due to pandemic-led disruptions, merchants now increasingly want to adopt digital channels and upgrade their operations. - Shraeyansh Thakur, Sequoia India

Ecommerce received a significant nudge to go digital since the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, disrupting the way consumers buy products and services. - Zaki Hasan, Affivo

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).