‘We have seen a massive shift in mindset and adoption of digital ways of working’ – 20 quotes 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.

Over the last two years, healthcare and diagnostics have emerged as a key theme for India. - Pankaj Makkar, Bertelsmann India Investments

If we have to ensure that pandemics are kept at bay, we must recognise how nature kept it under control. - Rushikesh Chavan, The Habitats Trust

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector was among the worst hit, with nearly ​​5,907 businesses shutting down during FY 2020-21 and 2021-22. - Nikhil Arora, GoDaddy

There were so many cases of people taking their own lives because their small businesses failed. - Lakshmi Menon, Toiless

It is very important to keep the needle focused on women, especially when the world is facing an economic crisis created by the pandemic and the wars. - Charlotte Keenan, Goldman Sachs 10KW

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The thing that gives me hope is looking at how entrepreneurs responded in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The speed at which they took decisions, and they did not behave like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, hoping that everything blows away. - Parag Dhol, Athera Venture Partners

Our revenues hit zero and the next day we were trying to get all the approvals in place to make sure that we are included under food, which was an essential category. - Nidhi Singh, Samosa Singh

We had enough capital, but a post-pandemic lot of parents started asking for refunds, and kids did not have time as schools opened up. - Saumya Yadav, Udayy

Starting the business during COVID-19 was a challenge. Another challenge was making customers understand the product quality as we are new in this segment. - Ashima Singla, Whispering Homes

A huge set of tools and technologies like remote HR management, attendance, approval processes and project management tools, remote project management tools, and collaborative project management tools saw a strong uptick during the pandemic. - Veeraj Thaploo, Blazeclan

[Videoconferencing and collaboration front] are moving towards enabling the phygital mode of working and collaborating. - Komal Prajapati, Betterplace

[The third trend] is empowering IT teams or internal IT teams to support a remote workforce. - Natasha Rock, GoTo

People are working across regions and geographies. Working in a sensitive and critical environment needs a second level of governance. - Veeraj Thaploo, Blazeclan

We have seen a massive shift in mindset and adoption [of digital ways of working]. - Komal Prajapati, Betterplace

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The pandemic was pivotal in changing [ecommerce investment], and brands shifted from perceiving ecommerce as a “good-to-have” channel to a “must-have, strategic channel”. - Sonu Somapalan, Tenovia

The online market has become very big and is going to become bigger in the future. - Hritesh Lohiya, Priti International

A large part of the population had started making all purchases online and this affected the local business community and impacted their livelihoods. It was imperative that people started buying from small traders again. - Lakshmi Menon, Toiless

While Indian MSMEs are crucial to our economic recovery, many MSMEs are still continuing to recover from the wrath of the pandemic. - Nikhil Arora, GoDaddy

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the home living space became the most integral part of everyone’s lives. - Ashima Singla, Whispering Homes

Post pandemic, the gap between supply and demand of skills has increased globally. We expect this trend to continue in mid to long term. - Hitesh Oberoi, Info Edge India

With the worst hopefully behind us, our focus must shift to the larger ramifications of such pandemics. How do we avoid any further catastrophes and how do we ensure sustained development? - Rushikesh Chavan, The Habitats Trust

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).