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  Twitter_Global Launch Image
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  Twitter_Global Launch Image

This year, people in India and across the world came together in moments of celebration, protest, mourning and joy. Many millions of you contributed to the moments and conversations that all unfolded on Twitter. People send more than 500 million Tweets per day. Each one contributes something special to Twitter, but only one is recognized as the “Golden Tweet,” a.k.a. the most-Retweeted Tweet of the year. This year, the global honor goes to @TheEllenShow’s starry photo from the March Oscars telecast. The Golden Tweet for India in 2014 comes from the #LokSabha election with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s (@NarendraModi) election-winning Tweet becoming the most retweeted Tweet ever in India:

Few of the Top 10 Twitter Conversation among Indians included Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) smashed the world record for the highest individual ODI cricket score of 264 on November 13th versus Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. That incredible batting display drove the biggest spike in conversations on Twitter in India this year. In fact, of the Top 10 moments, three are related to cricket including the Indian Premier League. The roar of the cricket fans, indeed, was heard on Twitter this year in India. The fan club of Rajinikanth (@superstarrajini) definitely made itself heard as well, with his arrival on Twitter making it the second largest peak in Twitter conversation of the year. With over 200,000 followers in the first 24 hours and now over 1.1 million in total, it’s clear that he has many loyal fans both off and on Twitter. Hardly surprising, two of the top 5 peaks in conversations were about PM Modi (@NarendraModi). With 8.5 million followers, he is currently the second most followed political leader in the world (after President Barack Obama) and continues to grow his followers at a rapid pace.

The fastest rising Twitter hashtag trends in India saw a mixture of sports, disasters and political campaigns. Conversations around the 2014 FIFA #WorldCup lead the trends followed by the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight #MH370. Meanwhile, #Mufflerman, a campaign led by the fans of the Aam Aadmi Party in support of leader Arvind Kejriwal, gathered momentum towards the end of the year. Indians tweeted about the Manchester United Football Club #MUFC and also supported updates and relief measures on the #KashmirFloods relief operations.

India’s list of power Tweeters is unsurprisingly dominated by Bollywood stars, with apart from @NarendraModi, only film stars feature in the top 10 spots. Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) is on 15th spot and the current Indian star batsman Virat Kohli (@imvkohli) is right behind at number 16.


- Dharmishtha Dagia