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.
Until August 2020, 70% of businesses remained disrupted. MSMEs had predominantly faced three critical barriers: market access, overall productivity, and access to more funds. – Chirag Gupta
The pandemic also became an ‘empowering opportunity for many of India’s aspiring and ambitious urban women in particular. – Richa Jaggi, Awshad
The pandemic was most challenging for smaller startups, especially for those startups that were not well funded when the pandemic-induced lockdowns started. – Kris Gopalakrishnan, N Dayasindhu, and Krishnan Narayanan, ‘The IT Story Of India’
The pandemic has really separated the men from the boys. There were lots who folded up, but there were some who pivoted and actually converted the crisis into an opportunity. – Dhruv Nath, ‘Dream Founder’
The complexity of the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the emergence of frugality. – Chirag Gupta
We got to talking about how the pandemic was affecting all of us, and the idea came about why we don’t just document what’s happening around us, it’s something historic that we all are going through. – Surabhi Sundaram, ‘A World On Hold’
With the support of NRSCEL who connected us with a few professors in IIM-Bangalore, we raised the initial funds for the meals [for people with disabilities]. – Alina Alam, Mitti Café
Our tech team built out a location-specific memory jar where people could anonymously seek and provide localised Covid-related resources when they heard that people who were sharing their contact info when asking for help were being harassed. – Shriya Sekhsaria, Lumhaa
Even my day-long corporate workshops on personal branding for business leaders went online via video calls instead of being conducted in exotic locations in company offsites! But things are getting back to the old ways now. – Karthik Srinivasan, DesignUp 2022
We are delighted to see the growth Bira91 has witnessed post the pandemic and we strongly believe that Bira91 has tremendous potential in this growing market. – Hiromasa Honda, Kirin Holdings Singapore
We are already living in the next generation, and specially after COVID we are in the generation where apps tend to have a lot of real-time features, whether it is tracking on food delivery or a live event. – Pandurang Nayak, Amazon Internet
This [ecommerce] sector saw exponential growth in the post-pandemic times as users were introduced to a new world of possibilities—seamless digital payments and quick delivery. – Rishi Vasudev, G.O.A.T. Brand Labs
What people want from work has changed forever. It is not just about just clocking in hours and going back home. The pandemic has made employees step back and re-evaluate priorities. – Sashi Kumar, Indeed India
Post-corona, work-from-home (WFH) has become a new norm that has increased the overall workforce’s productivity. Many tech giants like Infosys, IBM, etc. are still providing this flexibility. – Sumanpreet Bhatia, Exotel
While hybrid working is the way forward, professionals need to understand that if they need to move ahead in their career, they need to come back to office and have some flexibility, of course. – Harold D’Souza, WalkWater Talent Advisors
Technology is leading disruption across sectors and talent acquisition is no exception. The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work and the way we hire. – Sekhar Garisa, foundit.in
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).
