PM Modi among most-viewed CEOs on LinkedIn for second year running

For the second consecutive year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among the most-viewed CEOs on LinkedIn in India. The others in the list this year are Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal, Santosh Desai of Future Brands, Anil Sardana of Tata Power, M S Unnikrishnan of Thermax, Anand Gupta of HCL Technologies, and Rekha M Menon of Accenture India.

LinkedIn, the world’s largest online professional network, has no doubt that the prime minister is a CEO. “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 had told Quartz when last year’s list came out.

Prime Minister Modi has 1,809,230 followers on LinkedIn, where he has a meticulously compiled profile that traces his career to studying political science and government at Gujarat University, and lists politics and social service as his interests.

Under honours and awards, Modi’s profile says his government’s initiatives and projects have won more than 200 national and international awards. “If awards, honours and grants are to be taken as accolades, the verdict is clear. The recognition is not just state-wide, it’s national and international. And, it’s the same Modi-Magic that has worked here,” the spokesperson said.

Modi also posts on LinkedIn. There were two in July, though the one before that was back in November last year.

LinkedIn used member data over 2015-2016 to arrive at the Power Profiles 2016 list. It also applied filters to capture engagement levels and other actions on the platform. LinkedIn employees were excluded.