Top 10 Business Influencers On Twitter
India is a nation that has produced several leaders to date, and it’s not hidden that Indians have been the tech-heads, front-runners, and inspirations for a long time. There is one thing that they have in common – ‘dedication’. Throughout the decades it has been witnessed that dedicated Indian leaders are playing a pivotal role in changing the way how the Business world runs or technology works. However, in this article, we will particularly have a look at the Indian entrepreneurs who have succeeded to reach the epitome of success.
Right now we are living in a digital era where everything is available online, and being active on social media is also one of the important aspects for any leader. Though a study conducted by London-head-quartered ECCO International shows that Indian entrepreneurs remain relatively inaccessible to the general public on social media compared to their European and US counterparts, it is also founded that many are extremely renowned in the business world just for their work. Yet there are also a bunch of leaders who are spreading their thoughts, experiences, and information about good works being an Influencer. Let’s have a look at the Top 10 Entrepreneurial influencers of India, who topped the list and etched a mark for themselves, leading from the front.
Top 10 Business Influencers On Twitter:
1. Ratan N. Tata – 11.1M Followers
2. Anand Mahindra – 9.3M Followers
3. Sundar Pichai – 4.4M Followers
4. Nandan Nilekani – 2.5M Followers
5. Satya Nadella – 2.8M Followers
6. Ronnie Screwvala – 2M Followers
7. Harsh Goenka – 1.7M Followers
8. Deepinder Goyal – 565K Followers
9. Kunal Bahl – 283K Followers
10. Sachin Bansal – 259K Followers
1. Ratan N. Tata - 11.1M Followers
What distinguishes him is the stillness. Given his height and the distinctive appearance of his Persian ancestors, Mr Tata would be expected to stand out in a crowd. Not so with the Tata group’s helmsman, who may appear nearly invisible in any crowd due to his solitary character, modesty, and persistent desire to avoid the arch lights. The integrity and tenacity that lie beneath this character however are more significant because they define a tremendous corporate empire at the most revolutionary time in its lengthy and illustrious existence.
At the top of the list is the recipient of India’s most distinguished civilian awards – Padma Bhushan as well as Padma Vibhushan, Ratan Tata and he needs no introduction on the global platform. Belonging to a family of industrialists and philanthropists, Ratan Tata rose to become the Chairman of the Mumbai-based conglomerate TATA group in 1991 and had a brief stint in 2016. Apart from his business acumen, it was his grit and determination that led to the expansion of the TATA group on the global map. Mr Ratan Tata has over 11 million Followers on Twitter. He keeps tweeting about topics ranging from his personal life to the business world, about his organization – TATA to social activities. One of the most respected entrepreneurs, Ratan Tata is highly considered an icon by the youth of India.
Mr Anand Mahindra is the Chairman of the Mahindra Group. His tenure has seen the Group expand domestically and internationally into a range of major industrial sectors from automobiles and agriculture to IT and aerospace. The Group has also grown inorganically through a series of acquisitions that include Peugeot Motorcycles-France, Holiday Club Resorts Finland, and Pininfarina S.p.A-Italy.
Mr. Mahindra graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College (1977) and secured an MBA from the Harvard Business School (1981). He made a generous endowment in 2010 to the Harvard Humanities Center which is now known as the Mahindra Humanities Centre at Harvard. In 2008 he was bestowed the Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award and in 2014 he became the first Indian recipient of the Harvard Alumni Association’s Harvard Medal.
Anand Mahindra is the chairman of the $20.7 billion Mahindra Group and executive chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra. He is known for his brave decisions in the corporate world. Whether it be the launching of India’s most loved SUV (Scorpio) or India’s best Off-Roader – Mahindra Thar and various other decisions made in other sectors. Anand is also among very few billionaires in India, who just don’t want to be indulged in their luxurious lifestyle but also wants to contribute their best to society and for doing the same more effectively, actively takes part in many social activities as well.
The Mahindra Group started as a steel trading business to grow into a multinational conglomerate operating across industries such as real estate, automotive, and information technology. Anand Mahindra has over eight million followers on Twitter and his tweets are mostly on topics ranging from economy to cricket. He also considers complaints and suggestions for Mahindra Group from his followers, and can sometimes even be seen advising his team on Twitter.
2. Anand Mahindra - 9.3M Followers
3. Sundar Pichai - 4.4M Followers
Sundar Pichai, in full Pichai Sundararajan, born June 10, 1972, in Madras, is an Indian-born American executive who was CEO of both Google, Inc. (2015), and its holding company, Alphabet Inc. (2019).
At an early age, Pichai displayed an interest in technology and an extraordinary memory, especially for telephone numbers. After earning a degree in metallurgy (B.Tech., 1993) and a silver medal at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, he was awarded a scholarship to study at Stanford University (M.S. in engineering and materials science, 1995). He remained in the United States thereafter, working briefly for Applied Materials (a supplier of semiconductor materials) and then earning an M.B.A. (2002) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Sundar Pichai is a businessman and the CEO of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google, a technology company. He was appointed as the CEO of Google LLC in August 2015, replacing then Founder and CEO, Larry Page. Before joining Google, he worked with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He joined Google as the head of its product management and worked on the Google toolbar, and has been involved in the development of Google Chrome.
He was also a contender for the CEO of Microsoft. Sundar has over three million followers on Twitter. Being active on social media, Sundar endeavors to spread his thoughts regarding all kinds of topics including business, economy, global & public issues, and much more.
Born in Bengaluru, Nilekani received his Bachelor’s degree from IIT, Bombay. Fortune Magazine conferred him with “Asia’s Businessman of the year 2003”. In 2005 he received the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in the economy, economic sciences, and politics. In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He was also named Businessman of the year by Forbes Asia. Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 & 2009.
Foreign Policy magazine listed him as one of the Top 100 Global thinkers in 2010. He won The Economist Social & Economic Innovation Award for his leadership of India’s Unique Identification initiative (Aadhaar). In 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from E&Y. CNBC- TV 18 conferred the India Business leader award for the outstanding contributor to the Indian Economy-2017 and he also received the 22nd Nikkei Asia Prize for Economic & Business Innovation 2017. He has been inducted as an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
Nandan Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur and one of the founders of ‘Infosys’, a famous Indian IT company. He is a hero and an inspiration for the educated Indian middle class who see in him a man who has achieved great heights in life by the sheer dint of merit. Nandan decided to be an independent entrepreneur in the early years of his life after observing his father’s frequent job transfers and subsequent relocations. Nandan is a great believer in ‘giving back to society. It’s an important trait of his personality that remains intact after so many years. Being a philanthropist, he also contributed generously towards causes like healthcare and education for the underdeveloped sectors of society. In his tweets, he doesn’t just talk about business or technology but reflects his great views on eco-friendliness, love for nature, health & education, and much more. He has more than 2.5 million followers right now on Twitter.
4. Nandan Nilekani - 2.5M Followers
5. Satya Nadella - 2.8M Followers
Satya Nadella is the CEO of Microsoft, a technology company headquartered in Washington. Satya joined Microsoft in 1992 and held many leadership roles in Microsoft’s enterprise and consumer businesses. Before becoming the CEO, he was the executive vice-president of its cloud and enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company’s computing platforms. Before joining Microsoft, he worked at Sun Microsystems. It’s a fact that leaders who are active on social media have better engagement and relationships with their customers, and Satya is a prime example of how a leader can build engagement with employees and customers. Satya has more than two million followers on Twitter.
He also has a great bonding with his followers as he just doesn’t fill his social media feeds with Microsoft company updates. Satya often blogs and talks about his personal life, which creates a huge impact on the general public. One such instance is Satya’s blog in which he expressed – what he has learned through caring for his son, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy.
Before joining Microsoft, Nadella worked at Sun Microsystems, a company that sold computers, software, and information technology services. After quitting Sun Microsystems, Nadella joined Microsoft as a young engineer in 1992. In 2000, he secured his first executive role as vice president of Microsoft Central. Since then, there was no looking back for the Indian engineer. The following year, he got promoted as the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions. By 2007 Nadella was the senior Vice President of Microsoft Online Services, which not only put him in charge of Bing but the early versions of Microsoft Office and Xbox Live as well. In 2011 he was made president of the Server and Tools Division, which oversaw the Azure cloud platform and products for companies’ data centers like Windows Server and the SQL Server database. Back then, the Server and Tools Division was earning about $16.6 billion in revenue. But under Nadella’s leadership, within two years, the revenue multiplied to $20.3 billion.
Ronnie Screwvala is an Indian film producer, CEO, and Founder Chairman of ‘UTV Group’ (UTV Software Communications, UTVi, and UTV Motion Pictures). Ronnie started his career by launching the first organized cable TV venture in Mumbai in 1981. In 1990 he created UTV Software Communications Company and then got into film production, movie distribution, family-oriented channels, and web content, and after it went public in 2005 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), it expanded rapidly over the next three years.
The company partnered with Walt Disney, Fox Searchlight, Sony, and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment Production company, expanding the global reach of UTV. In September 2008, he was named amongst, ‘Esquire’s List of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century. In 2015, Ronnie with his three partners founded an upgrade to provide formal education online. Today the platform is renowned worldwide as one of the top education platforms. Ronnie has over 2.1 million followers on Twitter and his tweets are mostly on topics ranging from entertainment and education.
6. Ronnie Screwvala - 2M Followers
7. Harsh Goenka - 1.7M Followers
He has held positions as president of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber and member-executive committee at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry. He is a member of the board of governors of the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), one of the leading technical education institutes in India. He is also a member of the foundation board of the International Institute for Management Development, Switzerland, his alma mater.
Earlier, at an age of 28, he was a specially appointed member of the Estimates Committee for 1985– 86 set up by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Central Board Excise And Customs. In 2018, when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Mumbai, he was one of the 10 corporate leaders of India who held a power break-fast meeting with him on bi-lateral trade with India in various sectors of industry.
Harsh Goenka is the current chairman of $3.80 billion worth of RPG Group. Today, Harsh wears many hats. Apart from being the Chairman of the Board of RPG Enterprises, (KEC International Ltd), RPG Life Sciences, Zensar Technologies, and Raychem RPG Ltd, he is also the Chairman of CEAT Ltd. He is also a Director of Bajaj Electricals Ltd, and SICOM Ltd. Harsh is also known for his love for art. He has one of the most prominent collections of contemporary art in the country, one that embraces several genres and styles and transcends several generations of artists from all regions.
Harsh has been host to several art exhibitions in Mumbai for a decade and continues to support and encourage young artists. He is also one of the most admired faces on Twitter. Harsh often shares posts that are simultaneously exciting and educational from his official Twitter account. One of his recent shares is no exception to the rule. The tweet, which lists six things people should do in their youth, may fascinate many.
Deepinder Goyal is the founder and CEO of Zomato, an online food delivery start-up. He founded the company with his friend in 2008. Before Zomato, he worked with Bain and Company as a management consultant. An IIT Delhi student, Deepinder Goyal was always on the lookout for new places to eat.
What started as a collection of menus from a small list of restaurants has today grown into a massive conglomerate that is available for people to use in 24 countries. Deepinder also has a good online presence. With more than 400K followers, Deepinder endeavors to interact with customers as well as offer his valuable suggestions and comments on other topics apart from food delivery.
At the age of 38, Deepinder Goyal is a successful entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Zomato, one of India’s leading meal delivery businesses. Zomato is also available in more than 24 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and more than 10,000 cities worldwide.
Deepinder, a 38-year-old young entrepreneur from Muktsar, Punjab, India, was born to a family of entrepreneurs on January 26, 1983. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computing from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi in 2005.
8. Deepinder Goyal - 565K Followers
9. Kunal Bahl - 283K Followers
Kunal is an entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of the e-commerce platform Snapdeal. He believes in creating impact through technology. Kunal with his partner Rohit Bansal started Snapdeal in 2010 only as a daily deal website focusing on deals and coupons for restaurants, travel, shopping, fitness, and beauty products.
Eventually, it turned into an online store in September 2011. In 2007, after graduating from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Kunal bagged a job at an engineering job at Seattle-based Microsoft, but US immigration officials rejected his application for an H-1B visa, which led to Kunal’s return to India. The rejection turned out to be an opportunity for Kunal. Three years later, in 2010, Kunal and partner Rohit launched Snapdeal. Kunal today has more than 261K followers on Twitter.
Though in his professional journey he faced several difficulties one can never see his loss of confidence in him. The same can be witnessed through his tweets in which he suggests and states his audience to stay strong and dedicated to everything important in anyone’s life.
Bahl and Bansal have seen their share of hard times. In an earlier avatar, Snapdeal was called MoneySaver and sold physical discount coupons. (The shift to online group coupon deals happened only in January 2010.) At one stage, in July 2009, MoneySaver was in such bad shape it had a revenue balance of Rs 53,000, while its monthly wage bill was Rs 5 lakh. Bahl and Bansal put in all their savings to keep the company going. After paying salaries, they were left with Rs 21,000. Nor did the online marketplace yield fruit overnight. In end-2012, a full year after the switch, Snapdeal had only 1,000 sellers.
Sachin Bansal founded Flipkart in 2007 along with his partner Binny Bansal. In the initial stages, the e-Commerce the firm sold books online gradually expanding its operations into other domains. Today Flipkart has become one of the top e-commerce businesses in India. In April 2016, Sachin was named among the 100 most influential people in the world along with Binny by the Times Magazine.
Sachin is a visionary and a seasoned entrepreneur, a skill that he mastered through hard work. In 2018 after 11 years of his tenure with Flipkart, the company was valued at $20.8 billion. During this career at Flipkart, Sachin had the position of CEO and Executive Chairman. Right now Sachin is the leading financial service-providing organization NAVI. Sachin has a follower base of more than 216K Twitteratis. From various kinds of quotes to business & global issue statistics, Sachin keeps tweeting and interacting with his followers.
Sachin Bansal started working at Techspan while Binny Bansal worked at Sarnoff Corporation. Before starting Flipkart in 2007, they both worked for Amazon for a while too. Like Amazon, Flipkart (valued today at US$17 billion) too started as a bookstore. Later, more product categories were added to the store. In September 2015, both its founders were ranked 86th on the Forbes India list with a net worth of $1.3 billion. Flipkart has made several acquisitions, including Myntra, WeRead, Chakpak.com, and Mime360.
10. Sachin Bansal - 259K Followers
Conclusion
And it’s a wrap. Here was all you needed to know about the top 10 Twitter Business Influencers from India, their follower number, engagement, posts, and tweets that have made it to the top. These greatest of all Indian business leaders have inspired and touched a million lives and continue to do so.
Being a global influencer marketing agency, we at Confluencr realize the immense potential of these global businessmen and our influencers on their audience and wish to help our clients gain collaborations with these global business influencers. We have curated a network of leading Business influencers across the globe and can help you get your brand placed in front of the right audience, at the right time, and through the right set of influencers. Want to know more about influencer marketing, and how can it help your brand? Drop us an email at [email protected].
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