Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who begins his two-day visit to India on Thursday, is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Modi has over two crore fans on Facebook, making him the second most popular politician on the social networking site after US President Barack Obama. But it is the more discerning Twitter where Modi has a star-like presence.
Modi a Twitter star
One of the most popular men on Twitter, Modi has nearly seven million followers there. Add another three million followers of the @PMOIndia handle, and you have close to a crore and growing Modi followers in India and abroad.
Modi's formidable presence in social media is a part of the BJP's strategy of bypassing traditional media and reaching the supporters directly, a plank that worked for him and his party in the last Lok Sabha elections, giving the BJP a spectacular victory.
Since assuming power, Modi continued with what some call his Twitter diplomacy which included reaching out to global leaders through the microblogging site, sometimes in their language. The Modi effect saw most of his ministers, who were not on Twitter earlier, now actively tweeting.
Why is Zuckerberg's visit to India significant?
Zuckerberg's visit comes three months after Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of the social networking giant, visited India which is Facebook's second biggest market. Sandberg had also met Modi.
"Facebook has a very powerful presence in India, next only to US. There is enormous scope for expansion of Facebook, which is already a very popular platform in India. There is a need to work together in the field of education, in the field of health and other creative exposures," Sandberg had said.
Zuckerberg, 30, will be the third high-profile head of a US-based tech firm to visit India in the last few weeks, after Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
Zuckerberg will be in New Delhi to attend the Internet.org Summit on October 9 and 10 that aims to make Internet access affordable to people.
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