Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YS, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous edition here). Share these 30 gems and insights from the week of August 22-28 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See our special compilation of quotes related to India’s coronavirus responses here.
India’s quest for equitable growth will never be fulfilled unless founders from all socioeconomic backgrounds realise their full potential. – Hari TN, ‘From Pony to Unicorn’
Attrition in this [blue collar] segment is very high and the business tends to spend more time and money in finding new employees. – Balamurugan Sundararajan, Kaigal
Today, India’s gig economy is worth $20 billion with almost eight million gig workers. – Pankaj Makkar, Bertelsmann India Investments
India is in the third wave of the coffee revolution. – Abhishek Khurana, Kings Coffee
EVs constituted 0.5% of the Indian market last year, but the good thing is that it continues to double every year. We foresee that by 2025-26 this figure will be 5-8%. – Ashish Gupta, Volkswagen India
Astrology has always been one of the most consumed forms of content in India. – Manu Jain, VAMA
The men’s innerwear and comfortwear industry in India is a $3 billion opportunity in the mid-premium segment. But it has seen limited innovation on fabric, cuts or designs in the last decade or so from the leading incumbents. – Yash Kela, Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund
Like Kodagu and Araku means coffee, Kalyana Karnataka means millet. – Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Mumbai has enormous potential to become a super solar city, and the government and citizens should invest in solar energy projects. – Shantanu Sonaikar, Pi Green Innovations
An unfortunate aspect of our country is that a lot of people from small towns start migrating to the cities due to lack of opportunities. – Varun Pitre, Cufuka Craftworks
The biggest challenge in the rural community is mental poverty, not physical poverty. – Ronnie Screwvala, Dream Village
With each startup, there’s more innovation that comes into the sector and it pushes the boundaries of what digital health can really do for the country. – Shashank ND, Practo
The industry is going through some structural changes, there will be a humongous opportunity for pathology and healthcare in the next 10 to 20 years. – Ameera Shah, Metropolis Healthcare
Over 137 million Indians have near vision loss, and 79 million people suffer from impairment. – Manish Nagpal, Retina Foundation
There aren’t words in Indian languages for a lot of mental health conditions. – Amit Malik, Amaha
In India, 400 million users are battling issues related to dermatological, mental health, fertility, and women’s and sexual wellness. – Rajat Gupta, Mojocare
Hopefully, we should be launching 5G services by October 12. – Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
We are preparing to launch 6G by the end of this decade. We are encouraging Indian solutions in gaming and entertainment. – PM Narendra Modi
There are about 210 million monetisable internet users who follow regional content, and the content format will thrive for brands to target their audiences. – Vipin Pungalia, Sennheiser
The Indian market is not a white blanket. Every state behaves differently, each language represents its own differentiation, and there are different price points. – Romita Mazumdar, Foxtale
Even the ecommerce stores are sometimes too technical for people in smaller regions to understand. – Neha Suyal, Woovly
Since time immemorial, we have had crimes against gender, now there are crimes against transgenders as well. So, understanding gender from a very open lens is crucial. – Aishwarya Dongre, IPS
Volunteer energy is well and thriving in India, the young are naturally idealistic, and if we can harness that energy better, it adds positive meaning to their lives. – Rohini Nilekani, ‘Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar’
One of the biggest challenges is the willingness among people to donate for such a cause [rehabilitation home for stray animals], given the lack of awareness. – Gargi Vairagare, Rise for Tails
The transition to e-invoicing support primarily affects businesses not well-versed in handling the GST mechanism online. – Sandip Chhettri, TradeIndia
India offers a vibrant setting for fintech startups to become billion-dollar unicorns and quadruple in the next decade. – Shams Tabrej, Ezeepay
Driven by the digital transformation agenda, Indian enterprises will continue to expand the share of software spending in their broader IT spending. – Neha Gupta, Gartner
The development and use of facial recognition technology in India have been growing over the years as a tool for security, solving crime, and tracking and identifying different categories of persons. – Siddharth Kukatlapalli, Syntizen
Many hyper-growth SaaS startups in India are developing products with the goal of scaling globally right from the start. – Amitabh Nagpal, AISPL
SaaS from India has become a mainstream global phenomenon in the last few years. Hundreds of startups have established playbooks. – Amit Somani, Prime Venture Partners
YS 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).
