2016 was some year. I won’t say great; I won’t say bad. It had its hits’ it had its misses, all of which found its way on to Twitter—our friendly micro-blogging and social networking site. So, out of a case of acute curiosity, we reached out to the Twitter India headquarters to find out what exactly it was that made India tweet phenomenally this year. And they got back to us with a list of the top 10 things that got under the Indian nerves enough to make us want to tweet, incessantly about it. I’m kind of surprised Donald trump didn’t make the cut. And I don’t really know how I feel about it because it just proves that, at the end of it all, we’re a nation obsessed with religion, cricket and celebrities. I’d let you judge the rest.
1. NaMo’s Demonetisation
On November 8th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@NarendraModi) announced the demonetization of Rs 500 and 1000 currency notes to fight against black money and corruption in India. The move impacted the majority of Indians and Twitter continues to resonate with their opinions and debates over the currency ban, even now. The platform recorded 650,000 tweets within 24 hours, following the official announcement, and millions of more tweets in the following weeks. The magnitude of these conversations—by experts, as well as common people—put the global spotlight on India.
© Twitter Reverb
2. Indian Women At Rio
India united on Twitter to support and praise the top Indian women athletes during #Rio2016. It was girl power all the way for India at the Summer Olympics and fans came together, like never before, to publicly voice their gratitude to India’s star performers. Twitter recorded millions of tweets for these moments of national pride as part of the global conversation for #Rio2016 from 5-21 August. These victories saw PV Sindhu (@Pvsindhu1), Sakshi Mallik (@SakshiMalik) and Dipa Karmakar (@DipaKarmakar) rise, as individuals beating the odds and excelling at sports, consecutively emerging as an inspiration to millions of women around the world.
© Indiatimes
3. IndVsPak AT WT20
On March 19th, #INDvPAK trended all day on Twitter; and not just in India, but globally, as well. More than 1.1 million Tweets were recorded, making it the most tweeted T20 International match ever, beating the earlier record of the recent Asia Cup match between India and Pakistan where more than 670,000 tweets were sent. With his fantastic innings in a tight run-chase, Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) became the most mentioned player of this #WT20 match on Twitter.
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4. Delhi Pollution
The capital city's escalating pollution levels all year have seen citizens take to Twitter to express their worries, share photos of smog-filled streets, and find solutions. At the start of the year, the government implemented the Odd-Even scheme, impounded diesel vehicles and banned fire crackers during Diwali to improve air quality levels. Like every winter, the pollution levels continued to escalate in Delhi this November leading to worries of severe health hazards amongst citizens.
© Indiatimes
5. Diwali
Indians across the world celebrated the biggest and brightest festival via Tweets, photos and videos of sweets, fire crackers, festive clothes, and more from Oct 30-Nov 2. This year, thousands of Indians also participated in a Twitter Poll by @TwitterIndia to choose the colour of the ‘diya’ Twitter emoji, eventually choosing the orange version for the #HappyDiwali hashtag.
© BCCL
6. IndVsAus At WT20
One of the most exciting games of #WT20 was the do-or-die, winner-takes-all clash between India and Australia on March 27th. Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) scored 47 runs in the last five overs, hitting seven boundaries and a six, and the moment he hit the winning runs to secure India’s passage to the semi-finals was the most-Tweeted moment of #WT20. With 973K Tweets recorded during the match, this was the second most Tweeted match during #WT20.
© Twitter Reverb
7. International Yoga Day
The 2nd International Day of Yoga on June 21st was celebrated by yoga enthusiasts in India and across the world on Twitter. The 'asana' emoji was a delight for people celebrating the day and the platform lit up with invigorating photos and videos from the yoga community, even as remote as the Siachen glacier!
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8. Global Citizen
On November 19th, British rock band Coldplay and American hip-hop artist Jay Z performed for the first time in India as part of the Global Citizen Festival India 2016 in Mumbai. As Coldplay front man Chris Martin performed a duet with AR Rahman for 'Vande Mataram', the electric moment lit up on Twitter with videos and photos from the 80,000 screaming fans reaching a global audience. The concert's energy resonated on Twitter as fans gushed over the event that connected global and Indian music cultures.
© Indiatimes
9. Ganesh Chaturthi
Indians across communities, including celebrities, sport stars and politicians celebrated the cultural moment on the platform with colourful Tweets, greetings, photos and videos from August 5-16. This year, Twitter announced a special Lord Ganesha Twitter emoji for the first time. The special emoji was a pleasant surprise and an instant hit amongst Indians worldwide, who made #GaneshChaturthi emerge as one of the top Global Trends during the festive period, recording nearly half a million Tweets.
© Twitter Reverb
10. Filmfare Awards
For the 61st Filmfare Awards on January 15th, Twitter provided a front row seat to fans across the world. Bollywood fans flocked to Twitter to follow the live and exciting #OnlyOnTwitter conversation as the awards unfolded: real-time results of the winners, exclusive behind-the-scenes moments, live news broadcasts from the red carpet, exclusive videos and photos, and more. All of this made the Filmfare Awards the most talked about Indian award show of the year on Twitter.
© ET