LinkedIn, which maintains an enormous database of and for professionals, believes that the Indian prime minister is a chief executive officer (CEO).
In this year’s Power Profile survey, the professional networking portal has named Narendra Modi among the most viewed CEOs in 2015—along with eight members of India Inc.
“CEOs steer a group of people in a direction, and as a leader, Modi is doing that for India. That’s why he has been clubbed under CEOs,” a LinkedIn India spokesperson told Quartz.
An avid user of social networking platforms, Modi has some 14.5 million followers on Twitter, and over one million followers on LinkedIn. His LinkedIn profile, says “(Modi’s) personal connect on the ground is complemented by a strong presence online where he is known as India’s most techno-savvy leader, using the web to reach people and bring about change in their lives.”
LinkedIn Power Profiles, which was last released in 2012, lists the most viewed profiles on the professional networking portal under eight categories—CEOs, internet, technology, finance, human resources (HR), telecommunications, marketing and advertising, and students.
Men outnumbered women in most categories in India—except students. The list of most viewed students includes six women as against three men. Most students in the list are from elite colleges like the Indian Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Management, Birla Institute of Technology and the Indian School of Business.
Here are the lists of LinkedIn Power profiles across five categories:
Most viewed Indian CEOs on LinkedIn in 2015 so far:
| Name | Designation |
|---|---|
| Narendra Modi | Prime minister of India |
| Rajan Anandan | Vice president and managing director of Google, South East Asia & India |
| Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw | Chairman and managing director, Biocon Limited |
| Kirthiga Reddy | Managing director, Facebook India |
| Kunal Bahl | CEO, Snapdeal.com |
| Kumud Srinivasan | President, Intel India |
| Ramachandran T.R | Group country manager, India & South Asia, Visa |
| Suman Bose | Managing director and CEO at Siemens Industry Software India |
| Swati Piramal | Vice chairperson at Piramal Enterprises |
Most viewed Indian technology professionals:
| Name | Designation |
|---|---|
| Umang Bedi | Managing director, South Asia, Adobe |
| Bipin Preet Singh | Founder and CEO at MobiKwik |
| Vijay Shekhar Sharma | Founder at One97 and Paytm |
| Harsha Kumar | Assistant vice president – product at Olacabs.com |
| Subhasis Khatua | Principal software engineer at CA Technologies |
| Anirban Dey | Global head – Edge Products at EdgeVerve |
| Amisha Sethi | Indian author and a global marketing leader |
Most viewed Indian HR professionals:
| Name | Designation |
|---|---|
| Mekin Maheshwari | Chief people officer at Flipkart.com |
| Jayesh Sampat | Country head – HR at Liberty Videocon General Insurance |
| Praveen Krishnamurthy | Director, talent selection at Adobe Systems |
| Priti R. | Director, talent acquisition at Amazon |
| Emrana Sheikh | Vice president – human resources at Asian Paints |
| Sonali Roychowdhury | HR director – India/Middle East/Africa distributor operations at Procter and Gamble |
| Prabir Jha | President and group chief HR officer, Reliance Industries |
| Supriya Ahuja | Assistant vice president - head talent acquisition, Star India |
Most viewed Indian internet professionals:
| Name | Designation |
|---|---|
| Amit Deshpande | Director at Amazon.com |
| Gurmit Singh | Managing director at Yahoo India |
| Rishi Jaitly | Market director, India & Southeast Asia at Twitter |
| Shradha Sharma | Founder & CEO at YourStory Media |
| Praveen Sinha | Founder and managing director at Jabong |
| Sabina Chopra | Co-founder, Yatra.com |
| Vikram Chopra | Co-founder at FabFurnish |
| Sameer Parwani | CEO at CouponDunia |
| Aloke Bajpai | CEO & Co-founder, ixigo.com |
| Sumit Jain | Co-founder & CEO, CommonFloor.com |
Most viewed Indian students:
| Name | College |
|---|---|
| Kanchan Bhakoo | Indian School of Business |
| Arjav Jain | PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore south campus |
| Swapnil Warke | Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur |
| Puja Das | Indian School of Business |
| Alessandro Sbrizzi | Bocconi University & Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad |
| Arushi Jamar | Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad |
| Pritika Anand | Indian School of Business |
| Pratiksha Dake | Indian School of Business |
| Kriti Sharan | BITS-Pilani, Goa campus |