‘COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of flexible workspaces across the globe’ – 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.

Primary healthcare should be the cornerstone of the pandemic response and recovery from current and future public health emergencies. - Saurabh Kochhar, Meddo

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Indians have witnessed a tremendous shift in favouring wellness and preventative healthcare and there is an increased focus on health and wellness, like never before. - Prashant Jhaveri, Flipkart Health+

Resilience is the topmost quality that will make our people future-ready. - Geetika Goel, Hero Vired

We don’t see the impact of the pandemic reversing any time soon and believe that a long-term, patient fund is necessary to be able to continue to work with proximate NGO leaders in alleviating issues and building communities that were or are on the verge of collapse because of COVID’s successive onslaught. - Neera Nundy, Dasra

It is good to see that sectors that were worst hit by the pandemic such as Travel & Hospitality have now revived. We believe that with a growth trajectory like this, the upward trend in talent demand will continue its dream run in the coming months. - Pawan Goyal, Naukri.com

Ask the right questions, and ask a lot of them. Also, stop chasing perfection. - Nidhi Agarwal, Book A Workshop

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When the pandemic hit, we had some of the best collaboration tools already, which is why the transition was pretty smooth for us. - Manish Mittal, Atlassian

The initial months of lockdown meant zero business but I had to keep paying Rs 1.25 lakh of rent for our spaces in the malls… I had burnt all my savings and had to sell my car as well. - Bhupinder Madaan, Theka Coffee

Though we had homemade sweets some days during the lockdown, we always missed the taste of authentic Bengali sweets. That’s how the story of India Cuisine started. - Umashankar Mishra, India Cuisine

Launching the startup amid COVID was challenging, given the volatile state of the market and lack of awareness surrounding the brand. - Meenakshi Ganesh, Light Up Beauty

The pandemic has affected every single person worldwide. As an artist, the biggest challenge I faced was to socialise and promote my work. - Shradha Joshi, Chitra Santhe

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

The [data centre] market is now crowded especially after COVID-19. - Pallav Agarwal, HTS Solution

With the unprecedented economic, social, and business disruptions due to pandemic, we witnessed SMBs adopting technology for integrating business operations for completely seamless operations. - Arun Nayyar, NeoGrowth

The consumer mind also shifted and was more eager to try out new virtual experiences to find some semblance to their pre-COVID-19 life. This accelerated the efforts to achieve the ultimate vision of the metaverse. - Hina Dixit, SamsungNext

We have plans around integrating with metaverse so users can have a real-life quizzing experience while sitting at home, which might be the way forward given the kind of disruption we have seen due to COVID-19. - Abhinav Anand, Quizbee

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

One of the main challenges during the pandemic, especially in the beginning, was balancing work and home life, as things blended with ‘work from home’. - Chandrika Kasturi, P&G

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted businesses around the globe, and has also paved the way to accelerate business thinking towards adopting the gig economy. - Harsh Jain, UniGigs

Employers have recognised the need for thoughtful and compassionate outlook towards both the work and the workforce, making way for a newer style of working that fosters a sense of wellbeing and inclusion. - Hussain Zaidi, Kyndryl

COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of flexible workspaces across the globe. - Meghna Agarwal, IndiQube

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).