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Of the 500 million tweets per day in 2014 only one is recognized as the "Golden Tweet," a.k.a. the most-Retweeted Tweet of the year. For India, the 'Golden Tweet' for 2014 came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Golden Tweet of 2014 was his declaration of victory on the 16th of May 2014 gaining over 70,000 retweets celebrating his win.
The top 20 most retweeted Tweets of India is also a reminder of the massive influence film stars have in India. While Salman Khan (@beingsalmankhan) is number two on the list, Rajinikanth's (@superstarrajini) first ever Tweet actually makes it to sixth on the list for the year.
Also, making a debut is ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) as two of its Tweets make the top 10 as it made its historic journey to reach the red planet.
Top 10 Most-Followed Indian Twitter accounts:
Other than the most retweeted tweets, there were incidents that created the biggest spikes in conversation. One of them was Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) smashing the world record for the highest individual ODI cricket score of 264 on November 13th versus Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The 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.
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.
Among the fastest growing Indian accounts this year, we have seen a phenomenal increase in PM NarendraModi's (@NarendraModi) followers with nearly 5 million followers added this year alone, more than double what he had at the start of the year. He is followed by actor and Satyamev Jayate host Aamir Khan (@aamir_khan). Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) and Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) also added significant followers in the year 2014. Interestingly, the Prime Minister's Office's (@PMOIndia) account grew by 60 per cent over the year, too
Globally, the 'Golden tweet' global honor went to @TheEllenShow's starry photo from the March Oscars telecast.
