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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). Share these 25 gems and insightts from the week of January 23-29 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insightts. See our special compilation of quotes related to India’s pandemic responses here.

See also our pick of Top Quotes of 2022 on Entrepreneurship, Motivation, Investments, Women Changemakers, Social Entrepreneurs, Environmental Change, Pandemic Resilience, Digital Transformation, India Opportunities, Design, Art, Failure Lessons, and Storytelling.

Indians are largely positive about the macroeconomic performance of the country in 2023. Belief in the India growth story amongst older and affluent class is quite strong. – Deepender Rana, Kantar

If we do not harmonise our value chains with the rest of the world, or if we do not create logistics which are easier and faster, it would be difficult for international companies to get India into its value chain. – Piyush Goyal, Union Minister

The dominance of foreign brands suits a country that does not have the manpower. That is not the case with India. We have all the resources to be independent. – Saket Gaurav, Elista

Battery manufacturing is the most critical part of the value chain that needs to be localised, and batteries designed in India for India will pave the way. – Vikramaditya Gourineni, Amara Raja Batteries

While the passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle, and tractor segment volumes would continue to trend upwards, aided by favourable demand drivers, the two-wheeler industry is expected to record moderate growth in volumes, aided by a low base. – Shamsher Dewan, Icra

Gold leasing is a practice that has been prevalent in the offline market but is limited to a very small population (top 0.01% of India). – Dilip Jain, Gullak

If India has to meet its aspirations while ensuring sustainability. It is essential to include historical ecology and focus on how we interpret the past as producing the present and leading to the future. – Rushikesh Chavan, The Habitats Trust

In light of India’s ambitious COP27 goals and its wish to set a global example during its G20 presidency, the government needs to go much further to boost innovation within the nascent climatetech sector. – Ankit Jain, StepChange.

A significant example of increasing access and inclusion has been the Indian government’s mandate that at least one-third of beneficiaries under the MGNREGA scheme should be women. – Munira Loliwala, TeamLease Digital

At the heart of change is ownership. SEWA’s multi-pronged community-driven approach has lent women the faith that gender roles can indeed change. – Riti Mohapatra, Chandni Noronha & Amrutha Datla, Bridgespan India

Several women-led businesses in India run from homes. The awareness of MSME schemes and the incubation of these businesses to turn into scalable startups is essential for economic progress. Pashmi Shah, Get- A-Way

Three out of four people are worried about the rising inflation and want the government to introduce decisive measures to tackle the same. – Kantar survey

India has done a great job with the IITs and Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani. The talent is there. – Maya Ajmera, Society for Science

We have the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) but the commercialisation of technologies has been a challenge. – Mark Kahn, Omnivore

Securities Market regulator SEBI has created a great incubation ground to enable innovation in capital markets keeping the investor interest at the epicentre. – Ujjwal Jain, WealthDesk

Volatile market conditions and recession fears seem to have forced many investors to preserve capital. – Aurojyoti Bose, GlobalData

India has seen huge progress in B2C payments but B2B payments are still archaic and need an overhaul. – Manish Kumar, KredX

Nearly 80% of MSMEs in India lack access to formal credit. There is enormous opportunity to leverage technology for enabling access to finance. – Koteshwar LN, Flipkart

The Indian ecommerce sector considers ONDC to be the next UPI. Democratising and promoting an open network for all facets of the trade of goods and services is the primary goal of ONDC. – Rajat Wahi, Deloitte India

Looking at the pace at which fintech is growing in India, and with innovations happening every day, it would be better if the industry and regulators work hand in hand towards policy compliance. – Upasana Rupkrishan Taku, MobiKwik

We will see mobile phone production reaching Rs 1 lakh crore in 2023-24. – Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT

Our investors have paid almost Rs 8,000 crore in taxes just to allow us to come back to India, and that is a very stiff shock if a business is not yet at maturity. – Sameer Nigam, PhonePe

All clearances for investors to invest into Indian funds and startups should be brought down to a seven-day period, including compliances, etc. – Anirudh A Damani, Artha Venture Fund

We expect the startup space to continue receiving large investments, albeit at valuation multiples lower than 2021. There is high likelihood that Indian PE/VC investments in 2023 shall be meaningfully more than 2022 levels. – Vivek Soni, EY

If we want to retain high-quality talent and prevent startups from flipping or moving out of the country, the taxation on ESOPs will have to be taken to the next level, despite the five-year moratorium. – Padmaja Ruparel, Indian Angel Network

To date, India has seen 108 unicorns, the third most anywhere in the world. The country also has 103 soonicorns, representing Indian startups ready to attain unicorn status. By 2025, India is estimated to have 250 unicorns. – Jatin Kanabar and Anant Gangwal, Deloitte Haskins and Sells

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).