On Tuesday 23rd October 2012 during the auspicious Navratri period and a day before Dussehra, Shri Narendra Modi’s Twitter following crossed the historic 1 million mark! Shri Modi is among the most popular figures on social media and is among most followed public leaders in India today. He has been called the ‘King of Social Media’ as well due to his vast popularity among Netizens.
Historic Climb!
Shri Narendra Modi started tweeting in the year 2009 when he was among a very few leaders of India on a social media platform. His tweets have remained informative, interactive & non-controversial since beginning. His twitter followers have risen in an impressive manner every year. In 2009, he had only a few thousand followers while in 2010 the number of followers turned into lakhs. Between 2010 & 2011, the growth was commendable as in November 2011, his number of followers crossed the 400,000 mark and since then there has been no looking back! The climb between November 2011 and November 2012 has been historic! In a span of one year, Shri Modi’s followers on Twitter have shot up by 600,000, no small feat.
These are the landmark moments in Shri Modi’s Twitter journey in the last one-year.
| Date | Landmark Moment |
| 11/11/2011 | Shri Narendra Modi crosses 400,00 followers on Twitter |
| 03/03/2012 | 500,000 barrier breached by Shri Modi |
| 01/05/2012 | Gujarat Day gift for Shri Modi- Twitter followers cross 600,000. |
| 13/06/2012 | Shri Modi’s Twitter following zooms past 700,000! |
| 30/07/2012 | 800,000 mark scaled on Twitter |
| 02/09/2012 | Shri Narendra Modi’s Twitter following crosses 900,000 |
Social Media Presence Extends Beyond Twitter:
Shri Modi’s social media presence is not limited to Twitter only. He is very active on Facebook and he regularly shares his thoughts on various issues on his Blog. He has his own You Tube channel that contains a wonderful assortment of his speeches and media bytes.He is the first Indian leader to have his profile on Google+ and in August this year he held a Google+ Hangout that was watched by millions of people across 116 nations.
Shri Modi’s Google+ Hangout marked a fresh chapter in the innovative usage of social media technology by our public figures. It is by far the biggest Google+ Hangout in India and during the Hangout itself, Shri Modi’s website received over 1,66,000 clicks. Over 70,000 Tweets poured in while the Hangout was in progress and #ModiHangout remained the top trend across India! His Google+ account was started in June 2012 and within a span of only 4 months, more than 2,80,000 people have him in their circles!
Pioneered use of modern technology and integrated it in the working of the State Government!
From the very beginning, Shri Modi has been firm believer in the optimum use of modern technology and has successfully integrated it in the working of the state Government. For him, E-Governance is ‘easy, effective and economical’ governance and this best explains why he has given tremendous impetus to it.In January 2009 the historic ‘E-Gram Vishwa Gram’ Initiative was dedicated to the people that provided broadband connectivity to all village Panchayats across the state. This initiative has helped in delivering essential services at the doorstep of the people in the villages of Gujarat.
Taking a giant leap further, the Gujarat Government launched eMPOWER in July this year. eMPOWER is a basic computer course that seeks to provide knowledge of computer basics and the Internet especially to the youth. The training is imparted by Microsoft and those interested in learning can choose the training timing at their convenience. The initiative can be availed of at near free of cost and is free of cost for SC/ST, Women and Differently Abled candidates. Those who successfully complete the course will be awarded a certificate from Microsoft-GCVT Certificate in addition to the GCVT certificate.
In November 2011 the Computer Society of India conferred Shri Modi with the E-Ratna Award for his contribution in the field of E-Governance. Furthermore, the ICT initiatives of the Chief Minister’s Office won the ‘Award of Excellence- Departmental Level’ at the CSI Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2011. The e-Gov strategies and ICT enabled initiatives at the CMO were awarded the ‘Best Government to Citizen Initiative of the Year Award’ at the eIndia Summit held late last year.
Among the most notable successes of Shri Modi’s advocacy for integrating technology with matter of day-to-day Governance is SWAGAT (State Wide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology). Launched in 2003, SWAGAT is an innovative and one of its kind e-Governance initiative for grievance redressal that puts the people of the state in direct contact with the highest authorities of the State including the Chief Minister- Shri Modi himself addresses public grievances on the fourth Thursday of every month.
SWAGAT won prestigious United Nations Public Service Award for its role in transforming the delivery of public services. More recently, it also won the CXO Award 2011 for ‘improving public services.’ It has even won National e-Governance Awards in the past too.
Today, technology has become an indispensible part of our lives and it is truly amazing how Shri Narendra Modi has used technology not only to improve governance in the state but also in connecting with people across the world. His usage of technology and social media is something that everyone can learn from and emulate.
