Modi's Twitter following grows by 52%

Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to be the most followed Indian on Twitter even as the growth in his follower base at 52 per cent was lower than that of Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli, according to the microblogging site.

According to a Twitter report capturing trends in 2017, Modi saw his follower base increasing by 52 per cent to 37.5 million (as of December 4), from 24.6 million in 2016.

However, Kohli saw his followers grow by 61 per cent during the same period although on a smaller base.

The cricketer is ending the year with 20.8 million followers, as against 12.9 million last year.

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar also saw growth of 56 per cent in his follower base on Twitter this year.

This is the first time ever that Kohli and Tendulkar made it to the list of top 10 most followed Indian accounts, Twitter said.

The list was dominated by Bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone and Hrithik Roshan. 

Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan saw their fan base on Twitter grow at 40 per cent each. However, Shah Rukh — with 30.9 million followers — was ahead of Salman who had 28.5 million.

The data showed that the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 Final clash between India and Pakistan was the most tweeted about ODI ever with 1.8 million tweets. India's biggest tax reform, GST, also made it to the list of top trending hastags due to the magnitude of conversations it generated on the platform, Twitter said.   

Besides, the Supreme Court decision on the controversial Triple Talaq issue made '#TripleTalaq' trend on Twitter on August 22, with more than 350,000 tweets.