As the government adopts social media platforms in a big way, Home Ministry is on top when it comes to number of Twitter followers among all the union ministries, while External Affairs Ministry has the maximum number of Facebook likes.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is way above all the ministries in terms of Facebook likes. On Twitter also, Prime Minister’s Office has much larger number of followers.
As on December 22, Modi had 2.62 crore Facebook likes and his Twitter handle @PMOIndia was followed by 48 lakh people.
Among the ministries, Home Ministry has 2.32 lakh people following its Twitter handle, while Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting (2.17 lakh) comes second.
These two are followed by External Affairs Ministry (1.95 lakh), Railway Ministry (1.57 lakh), Commerce and Industry
Ministry (61,924) and Health and Family Affairs (35,500).
“Social media has emerged as a major communication medium directly with people. High number of Facebook likes and
twitter followers shows that people want to be directly in touch with the government,” an official said.
While most of the ministries have established a presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, there are
still a few that are yet to join this league.
Among the lowest, only 39 people follow Tribal Affairs Ministry, while Environment and Forest Ministry has 60 and
Urban Development Ministry 88 Twitter followers.
When it comes to Facebook likes, after External Affairs Ministry (6.82 lakh), second largest number of likes were
received by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (6.60 lakh).
These are followed by Finance Ministry (6.28 lakh), Railway Ministry (2.21 lakh), Environment and Forest Ministry (45,231) and Human Resource Development Ministry (45,004).
Among the lowest, only 715 likes were received by Urban Development Ministry, followed by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (775) and Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (968).