‘COVID-19 has been a huge wake-up call that has come at a heavy cost’ – 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.

There will be more variants, we are not going to get rid of this virus. The reasons include – it causes asymptomatic infections, it infects animals, and it knows how to evolve. - Dr Gagandeep Kang, CMC Vellore

Parents have now been stuck at home with their kids for 2.5 years and what's happened is that parents have also become way more conscientious about how their child is living. - Cathy Guo, Antler

After reaching the record high of $106 billion in FY20, the domestic textile and apparels industry was severely impacted by the onset of COVID-19, slumping to $75 billion in 2021. - Anurag Singh

ALSO READ

[Year in Review 2021] Amid COVID-19, these 10 non-profits created social impact this year

During the lockdown, the [jewellery] delivery chain was disrupted and gold prices were highly volatile. - Aagam Shah, Plushvie

Two-wheeler garages were one of the worst-hit businesses due to COVID. - Shishir Gandhi, GarageWorks

The pandemic had a telling effect on creative artists. Most of them were on the verge of giving up due to bleak opportunities for sales, with the markets down. - AV Ilango, Art Cube Gallery

COVID-19 has been a huge wake-up call that has come at a heavy cost. It has also made all of us relook at what we were doing. - Ram Shroff, Charak Pharma

One of the things that the pandemic really did was, it really showed people where they are - either you adapt or you perish. - Akshay Munjal, Hero Vired

We cannot bind ourselves to some plan and the last two years showed us that, which can also make us lose our agility. - Kamesh Goyal, Digit Insurance

COVID-19 taught big brands a big lesson on strengthening their distribution network by consolidating the fragmented micro markets and partnering with professional setups that can expand with them across geographies using tech and analytics. - Abhishek Nehru, RIPPLR

ALSO READ

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

Flexible working is the No. 1 priority today for all professionals, especially for working women. - LinkedIn report

COVID-19 has changed the way we work, with remote work as the new normal. As a result, cloud companies have started to recognise the necessity of providing both reliable infrastructure and a stable internet network. - Hyung-Kyu Choi, DigitalOcean

People are back to offices and business travel is back in the conversation. Business travel bookings are surging. - Mayank Kukreja, ITILITE

Being vulnerable and honest with people actually pays off more often than not. - Hari Ganapathy, Pickyourtrail

I am especially proud of the support we provisioned to our impacted associates during COVID-19 through our holistic benefits program, which addresses the physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of our people. - Padmapriya R, Fiserv

ALSO READ

Key highlights from YourStory's The Metaverse Summit - India's first Web3 conference

We have used technology extensively through this pandemic to ensure our teams have a strong sense of belonging, irrespective of where they are working from. - Reena Sofiya, Lowe's India

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sudden spike in the number of fraud cases. - Adhip Ramesh, TrustCheckr

COVID-19 affected us badly, especially during the second lockdown. But, the tourists are returning and we are slowly making up for our losses. - Julima Deka, Green Trek Adventures

For domestic, Goa, Kashmir, Himachal and Jaipur, continue to dominate the entire sentiments and interests coming from the domestic travellers. - Himank Tripathi, EaseMyTrip

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).