A social network like Twitter is much more than a platform to send Tweets: It is a summary of the nation’s mood, a reflection of the country’s ambitions and a barometer to check the pulse of its citizens.
Out of 271 million users of Twitter globally, which posts 500 million Tweets every 24 hours, 35 million users are from India.
35 million or 3.5 crore Internet savvy Indians use Twitter to share their joy, pain, sufferings and desires. The short 140 characters messages which these 3.5 crore Indians shared via Twitter can be described as an amalgamation of their emotions and their state of mind.
What can be a better way to understand India in 2014, than analyzing the top moments of Twitter India?
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Most ReTweeted Tweet of India in 2014
On May 16, 2014, 12.09 PM, India’s 15th Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the victory news via Twitter, and that Tweet has become the Golden Tweet for 2014 with 70,513 retweets.
Never before in the history of Independent India, a PM had shared his joy this way. Surely a defining moment for India.
Right now, after Barack Obama, Narendra Modi is the most followed leader globally.
At #2 is Bollywood heartthrob and superstar Salman Khan’s Tweet sharing the link of his movie Kick’s trailer which received 51,981 ReTweets.
Yeh lo kick trailer ka link : http://t.co/Wgr0OONdIs
— Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) June 15, 2014
Top 20 Tweets of India in 2014:
- @narendramodi, 70,515 RTs: https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/467192528878329856
- @beingsalmankhan,51,981 RTs:
- @VEERIAN, 30,853 RTs:
- @taran_adarsh, 24,657 RTs: https://twitter.com/taran_adarsh/statuses/444166921882062848
- @beingsalmankhan, 18,374 RTs: https://twitter.com/BeingSalmanKhan/statuses/444806659467005952
- @superstarrajini, 14,979 RTs: https://twitter.com/superstarrajini/status/463263835227684864
- @atulreellife, 13,161 RTs: https://twitter.com/atulreellife/status/442721711343939584
- @VEERIAN, 12,789 RTs:
- @MarsOrbiter, 12,495 RTs: https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter/status/514618412417302528
- @MarsOrbiter, 12,488 RTs: https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter/status/514603320137097216
- @superstarrajini, 12,391 RTs: https://twitter.com/superstarrajini/status/467231560899362816
- @narendramodi, 12,370 RTs: https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/467213500767404032
- @SonyMusicIn, 11,440 RTs: https://twitter.com/SonyMusicIn/status/463932527137157121
- @deepikapadukone, 11,323RTs: https://twitter.com/deepikapadukone/status/533575410705911809
- @sonakshisinha, 10,020 RTs: https://twitter.com/sonakshisinha/status/532760682945466368
- @deepikapadukone, 9,363 RTs: https://twitter.com/deepikapadukone/status/511070655442219008
- @deepikapadukone, 9,334 RTs: https://twitter.com/deepikapadukone/status/511070915170271233
- @iamsrk, 8,967 RTs:
- @sachin_rt, 8,510 RTs: https://twitter.com/sachin_rt/status/538299716203601920
- @narendramodi, 7,995 RTs:
Most Followed Indians on Twitter
Bollywood is a very important factor in the overall life of an Indian, and the fact gets cemented via Twitter as well. Not surprisingly, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan is the most followed Indian on Twitter right now with 11,818,056 followers. Shahrukh Khan with 10,246,755 followers is at #2 while Aamir Khan with 9,866,492 followers is at #3.
Here is the list of top 20 most followed Indians on Twitter:
| Rank | Twitter Handle | Name | No. of Followers | Description |
| 1 | @srbachchan | Amitabh Bachchan | 11,818,056 | Actor |
| 2 | @iamsrk | Shah Rukh Khan | 10,246,755 | Actor |
| 3 | @aamir_khan | Aamir Khan | 9,866,492 | Actor |
| 4 | @beingsalmankhan | Salman Khan | 9,426,989 | Film actor, artist, painter, humanitarian |
| 5 | @narendramodi | Narendra Modi | 8,424,709 | Prime Minister of India |
| 6 | @deepikapadukone | Deepika Padukone | 8,349,273 | Actor |
| 7 | @priyankachopra | Priyanka Chopra | 7,914,122 | Actor,Recording Artist |
| 8 | @ihrithik | Hrithik Roshan | 7,574,967 | Actor |
| 9 | @akshaykumar | Akshay Kumar | 6,685,653 | Actor |
| 10 | @arrahman | A.R. Rahman | 5,607,203 | Grammy and Academy Award winning musician |
| 11 | @sonamakapoor | Sonam Kapoor | 5,361,947 | Actor |
| 12 | @juniorbachchan | Abhishek Bachchan | 5,334,509 | Actor / Sports Teams Onwer in the ISL & KPL |
| 13 | @shahidkapoor | Shahid Kapoor | 5,061,589 | Actor |
| 14 | @karanjohar | Karan Johar | 5,037,354 | Director, Producer,Writer & Talk show host |
| 15 | @sachin_rt | Sachin Tendulkar | 4,814,118 | Cricketer |
| 16 | @imvkohli | Virat Kohli | 4,674,709 | Cricketer |
| 17 | @faroutakhtar | Farhan Akhtar | 4,101,438 | Film maker/ Founder- MARD Initiative |
| 18 | @PMOIndia | Office of the Prime Minister of India | 3,865,610 | Office of the Prime Minister of India |
| 19 | @anushkasharma | Anushka Sharma | 3,778,403 | Actor |
| 20 | @chetan_bhagat | Chetan Bhagat | 3,698,422 | Author |
Famous Personalities Who Joined Twitter in 2014
When superstar Rajinikanth joined Twitter on May 4th, he had more than 2,00,000 followers within 24 hours, a feat which no one else in India has ever achieved. The President of India’s Twitter account debuted, along with actor Arjun Kapoor and ISRO’s Mars Orbitor. Here are the top 20 personalities which joined Twitter in 2014:
| NAME | TWITTER HANDLE | FIELD OF WORK | FOLLOWERS AS ON 09.12 |
| Rajinikanth | @SuperStarRajini | Entertainment | 1,128,418 |
| Arjun Kapoor | @arjunk26 | Entertainment | 5,37,539 |
| President of India | @RashtrapatiBhvn | Politics | 3,06,473 |
| ISRO’s Mars Orbiter | @MarsOrbiter | Science/Astronomy | 2,13,717 |
| Ministry of Railways | @RailMinIndia | Government | 1,44,159 |
| VVS Laxman | @VVSLaxman281 | Cricket | 1,22,348 |
| Kajol | @KajolAtUN | Entertainment | 66,166 |
| Twinkle Khanna | @mrsfunnybones | Entertainment | 60,143 |
| Anil Kumble | @anilkumble1074 | Cricket | 56,806 |
| Kirron Kher | @KirronKherBJP | Entertainment / Politics | 54,033 |
| Kailash Satyarthi | @k_satyarthi | Government | 50,969 |
| Alok Nath | @aloknath | Entertainment | 36,385 |
| Ministry of Health and Family Welfare | @MoHFW_INDIA | Government | 32,002 |
| Ministry of Textiles | @TexMinIndia | Government | 11,176 |
| Ministry of Finance | @FinMinIndia | Government | 9,953 |
| Uday Kotak | @udaykotak | Business | 6,669 |
| Armaan Jain | @TheArmaanJain | Entertainment | 5,355 |
| Amit Trivedi | @ItsAmitTrivedi | Entertainment | 4,876 |
| Prakash Jha | @prakashjha27 | Entertainment / Politics | 1,870 |
Twitter Accounts With Fastest Growth in 2014
PM Modi added 4.6 million new followers in 2014, a record in itself because he had less than half of them at the start of the year. Aamir Khan, the evergreen popular Bollywood actor added 3.9 million followers while Amitabh Bachchan was followed by 3.7 million new followers in 2014.
Here are the top 20 Twitter accounts which grew fastest in 2014:
| NAME | TWITTER HANDLE | FOLLOWERS AS OF 09.12 | FOLLOWERS ADDED IN 2014 | % GROWTH |
| Narendra Modi | @narendramodi | 8,501,699 | 4,629,463 | 54.45% |
| Aamir Khan | @aamir_khan | 9,925,022 | 3,952,276 | 39.82% |
| Amitabh Bachchan | @SrBachchan | 11,881,345 | 3,770,921 | 31.74% |
| Shah Rukh Khan | @iamsrk | 10,296,567 | 3,639,211 | 35.34% |
| Salman Khan | @BeingSalmanKhan | 9,475,555 | 3,207,672 | 33.85% |
| Deepika Padukone | @deepikapadukone | 8,399,197 | 3,033,837 | 36.12% |
| Hrithik Roshan | @iHrithik | 7,616,018 | 2,436,798 | 32.00% |
| Priyanka Chopra | @priyankachopra | 7,951,533 | 2,380,180 | 29.93% |
| Office of the Prime Minister of India | @PMOIndia | 3,872,917 | 2,355,778 | 60.83% |
| Akshay Kumar | @akshaykumar | 6,721,957 | 2,306,299 | 34.31% |
Hashtags represent the trend, the pulse which is influencing the country, and in that list, #WordCup2014 was the fastest spreading hashtag in 2014. Malaysian airlines MH370, which disappeared from radars and is still missing was at #2 position, followed by #MufflerMan which represented Aam Aadmi Party Arvind Kejriwal.
Here are the top 10 hashtags which spread like wildfire in 2014:
| RANK | HASHTAGS | DESCRIPTION |
| 1. | #WorldCup2014 | Refers to conversation around Football World Cup 2014 held in Brazil |
| 2. | #MH370 | MH370 was a flight that disappeared on 8 March 2014 |
| 3. | #MufflerMan | #MufflerMan refers to a campaign by Aam Aadmi Party |
| 4. | #MUFC | #MUFC refers to Football fans following Manchester United Football Club |
| 5. | #KashmirFloods | Update on JK flood relief operation by assisting the Indian army |
| 6. | #QuitAAP | Public outrage against Aam Aadmi Party |
| 7. | #IndvsEng | #IndvsEng refers to India vs England cricket match played |
| 8. | #Results2014 | Information on the Lok Sabha elections results |
| 9. | #IPL7 | Conversations around Pepsi Indian Premier League cricket tournament |
| 10. | #AusOpen | Conversations around 2014 Australian Open |
Twitter Conversations Which Engaged Maximum Indians
Twitter heavily revolves around the news, the current happenings and the new trends. When Rohit Sharma scored 264 against Sri Lanka in November, then the topic ignited unprecedented conversations and Twitter India was on fire. Similarly when Rajinikanth joined Twitter, 200,000 followers had connected with him within 24 hours.
Here are the top 10 Twitter conversations of 2014:
| RANK | DATE | MOMENT |
| 1. | 13 Nov 2014 | Rohit Sharma scores 264 runs vs Sri Lanka. He claimed the record for the world’s highest ever ODI score by an individual |
| 2. | 4 May 2014 | Rajinikanth joins Twitter with a message of thanks to his legion of fans and has over 200,000 followers within the first two days |
| 3. | 22 April 2014 | PM candidate Narendra Modi refrains his supporters from making irresponsible statements during the election campaign |
| 4. | 2 May 2014 | The 2014 season of the Pepsi IPL returns to India |
| 5. | 3 May 2014 | Narendra Modi gives an interview for a Hindi News channel leading to a big debate on Freedom of Press |
| 6. | 23 April 2014 | Kejriwal files nomination papers from Varanasi as Shazia Ilmi stokes controversy over communal comment |
| 7. | 23 Oct 2014 | India celebrates Diwali |
| 8. | 21 May 2014 | Arvind Kejriwal arrested for protesting on the streets of Delhi |
| 9. | 2 July 2014 | Outrage over tennis star Maria Sharapova claiming she does not know who cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar is |
| 10. | 11 April 2014 | SP leader Abu Azmi’s rakes up controversy by claiming there should be punishment involved women in rape cases |
[…] can be a better way to understand India in 2014, than analyzing the top moments of Twitter India? Here is what Indians did on Twitter in 2014. A grand […]