Union Budget 2014
Twitter Abuzz about Budget with 1 lakh Tweets; Sardar Patel Statue, IITs and IIMs DiscussedReuters

It was clear that all eyes were on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday as he presented the Modi government's maiden budget. Social media buzzed all through the day with reactions to the Budget pouring in from platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

There were more than one lakh tweets about the Budget, according to a social media analytic company, Bloggers Mind, which compiled a report on the Twitter buzz around the Union Budget 2014-15.

Twitter determines the trending topics for the day, and of course, #Budget2014 remained the most popular one through the day.

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Twitter Abuzz on Budget dayReuters

Twitter Abuzz -

Tweeple seemed to follow every word of Jaitley as he presented the government's policies through the Budget for about two hours in the Parliament. The number of tweets about the Budget reached 30 per minute, as soon as Jaitley began his speech at 11 am on Thursday. According to the report, more than 1,10,000 tweets around the Budget were recorded, which is estimated to have reached out to 71 million people on Twitter.

In effect, 1.9 billion impressions about the Budget were generated through Twitter. Impressions entail the total count of the number of followers of all those who tweeted.

Even those on the move during the day seemed to be religiously following the Budget announcements, with 35 percent of the total tweets of 1.10 lakh coming from mobile devices.

Talking Points on Twitter –

The Twitterati were not merely tweeting about the Budget, but took up some important points to discuss on the micro-blogging site. The Modi government's plans to set up a statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel for ₹200 crore was a major talking point, while Jaitley's announcement to bring in FDI to several sectors was one of the most discussed topics.

There was also a lot of buzz around the fact that the country will get five new IITs and IIMs each.

Here are some of the major talking points of Twitter on Thursday and the percentage of their buzz:

FDI in multiple sectors – 16%

New IITs/IIMs – 14%

Excise duty on Tobacco – 11%

Roads and highways – 11%

Sardar Vallabhai Patel Statue – 8%

Funding for start-ups – 8%

IT Exemption – 6%

Other topics – 26%

It is clear from this break up that the buzz was generated mostly by the youth who were more vocal about the new IIMs and IITs and cigarettes becoming expensive than about income tax exemptions.

Popular Tweets on Budget –

Everyone, from senior journalists to politicians to corporate professionals took to Twitter to opine on the Budget –

Here are some of the popular tweets that were re-tweeted multiple times.

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's comment on how the government had allotted more money for the Sardar Patel statue than for the girl child was re-tweeted 1,635 times and was 'favorited' by 588 people.

Congress leader Ajay Maken's lament about the tax exemptions was re-tweeted 300 times.

Biocon head Kiran Shaw tweeted –