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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). 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.

During COVID, the gap between patients and doctors was observed even in urban areas. Unless it was absolutely necessary, people started avoiding hospitals to get treatment for their health problems as they feared contacting COVID-19. – Ajit Narayanan, mfine

What was earlier a fitness enthusiast market is now a proactive health aware market. More consumers are taking care of their bodies and have actively increased consumption in this category. – Rahul Chowdhri, Stellaris

As adults switch to a cleaner lifestyle, we can anticipate a spurt in healthier, kid-friendly snacking options too. – Ankit Chona, Phab

The pandemic has adversely affected sectors like travel and tourism, but on the other hand, we have seen the maximum number of unicorns emerging from the pandemic. – Renu Shah, STEP

The pandemic gives [entrepreneurs] an inherent and underlying opportunity to reinvent and do something. – Aakanksha Bhargava, PM Relocations

The pandemic saw the launch of several new businesses that fulfilled gaps in the market. – Sairee Chahal, SHEROES

[The pandemic] unleashed a tidal wave of entrepreneurial activity across the country from women that choose to support their families. – Amit Doshi, Britannia Industries

In the pandemic, many breadwinners have lost their jobs and therefore women have taken up entrepreneurship. – Rashmi Bansal, Ashoka University

That’s the clear change that the pandemic has brought about, there is no company who can treat technology as purely an enabler and not as the way of life. – Rahul Chari, PhonePe

Post-COVID ecosystem rules and consumer preferences have seen a tectonic shift towards digital engagement, soaring quality, and convenience demands. – Shishir Gandhi, GarageWorks

Technology has completely transformed the ecommerce industry. The pandemic has accelerated this transformation. Probably what would have taken years has happened in a matter of months. – Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho

The need for technology is critical in almost every sector today because of the rapid digitisation across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this, and the demand continues to grow. – Gautam Rege, Josh Software

COVID-19 acted like a catapult and propelled everyone into a direction that no one had ever imagined. The pace of technology adoption by companies and users in Bharat was at a jet speed. – Karanvir Singh, Pariksha

Many of us in the city were able to order online, but in the villages, people had phones, but no grocery or other essential product could reach them. – Ankur Dahiya, Rozana.in

There has been a demand uptick for laptops ever since offices went into Work From Home (WFH) mode and schools shifted to virtual classes ever since the onset of the pandemic. – Prasun Kumar, Just Dial

Educational institutions are now shifting to hybrid mode. Bringing the offline and online students together and engaging them on a single platform is becoming the key. – Sujeeth Kanuganti, AspectO

There is one section of children who are able to complement their school-based learning through technology v/s kids who have no ability or access to quality edtech products. – Rathish Balakrishnan, Sattva Consulting

The main focus now is to seamlessly integrate students back to the classroom environment. – Saurabh Taneja, Akanksha Foundation

Today’s brides lean towards experimental, minimal and out-of-the-box looks. Sustainability has become a big aspect of couture, especially after the pandemic. – Varun Bahl

These [sharp] lines represent the games that COVID-19 has been playing with us – a kind of start-stop element, which hopefully we’re getting out of now! – Ashish Soni

This year’s [Chitra Santhe] exhibition was especially exciting and wonderful because the physical edition happened after a gap of two long years. – Kanchan Rathna

In the post-COVID-19 world, the focus on import substitution, seizing the opportunity in exports due to countries willing to diversify their trade away from China, and the government’s reinvigorated push for ‘vocal for local’ – have all significantly benefited the logistics sector. – Nilesh Ghule, Forza Logistics Techlabs

People will now have to keep the worst scenarios in mind and plan their business continuity in a way that they can cope despite travel and transport restrictions, as well as lockdowns. – Deep Ganatra, The Good Glamm Group

In this world of flexible work, for it to work successfully, it really requires a proactive conversation as a management team all the way down the chain of the company. – Bret Taylor, Salesforce

Gig economy is here to stay. We have been hearing that talent is distributed but opportunities are not. What the pandemic has taught is that opportunities can be distributed as well. – Ronak Shah, Apna

The anticipation of returning to normalcy by companies is fueling a strong hiring sentiment as there has been a pent-up demand across sectors. – Pawan Goyal, Naukri.com

It definitely looks rosy on the outside now, but it has taken quite a toll on my mental health, especially during the pandemic. A lot of businesses struggled through COVID-19. – Ritu Oberoi, ForSarees

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).