‘Access to expertise has democratised itself beyond boundaries’ – 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.

The [economic] recovery has gained momentum despite the pandemic and the war. On the other hand, inflation has steeply increased much beyond the upper tolerance level. - Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor

We see D2C (direct to consumer) and B2C (business to consumer) segments such as edtech, which benefited from prolonged work from home, seeing the most impact of the post-pandemic opening of the economy and some layoffs in these firms. - Jang Bahadur Singh, Aon

All vaccines that are being distributed globally commercially are being made in a single facility by our partners (the Serum Institute in India)...that includes the vaccines which are being deployed around the world as well as the ones that will be initially deployed in the US. - Filip Dubovsky, Novavax

Despite post-pandemic adversities, MSMEs have shown remarkable resilience in the global trade arena. - Arun Poojari, Cashinvoice

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In terms of the job outlook, businesses will continue to grow, and we see this demand reflected in segments such as import/export, telecom, travel and hospitality, and BFSI. - Sekhar Garisa, Monster

Sure, the pandemic is temporary, but this situation teaches us that employers always prefer workers that are constantly willing to upskill. - Nagesh Singh, Edunet Foundation

Post COVID-19, the co-living market has witnessed huge growth with people flocking back to offices. - Sriram Puthucode

Unlike many other professions, there is no work from home for photography! - Amoghavarsha Patlapati, Moghi’s Tales

When COVID-19 came, students couldn’t go for offline coaching, so they didn’t have any support. - Alakh Pandey, Physics Wallah

As the pandemic-induced lockdown took hold, we thought, if everything can be delivered to the doorstep, why not diesel? - Rakshit Mathur, The Fuel Delivery

During COVID-19, we saw a slight slump. But during the last year, the period has been fruitful, and we grew 50 percent. - Jasmeet Bhatia, Black Magnum

We had to constantly reinvent ourselves and after a few setbacks, within three months we were effectively leveraging the benefits of remote work hacks and tools, quite efficiently. - Bhuvaneswari Veerasamy, Bahwan CyberTek

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The situation was further aggravated by macroeconomic supply chain issues that led to delays in our product development and launch. - Ranjita Ravi, Orxa

ARTH has been able to build a strong business and customer base even during COVID. - Brian J. Bailey, investor

During the second wave, China increased Remdesivir’s raw material prices from $4,500 per kg to $8,500 per kg. - Dharmesh Shah, BDR Pharma

After two years, customers are stepping out of their homes to either go back to work, go back to college, participate in social occasions, or to even get ready for regional festivals that start in July. - Nandita Sinha, Myntra

The recent revival of the travel industry [has led to] unprecedented interest in automating the T&E process. - Tarun Davda, Matrix India

Corporate travel remains below 50 percent of pre-pandemic spend and faces a more complex prognosis than leisure travel. - Deloitte

Six months, 12 months, 24 months, whatever time it takes, companies will travel again. - Mayank Kukreja and Anish Khadiya, ITILITE

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Over the course of the pandemic, we have seen organisations of all sizes accelerate their digital transformation plans by several years. - Sunil PP, AWS India and South Asia

Many IT giants have expressed their interest in hiring as the economy recovers to normalcy and companies rise to the pre-pandemic operation levels. - Yeshab Giri, Randstad India

In the post-COVID-19 world, access to expertise has democratised itself beyond the organisation and geographic boundaries. - Anjan Lahiri, Navikenz

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).