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Tag: Twitter India

  • Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari to move to US as senior director

    Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari to move to US as senior director

    Mumbai: Twitter India managing director Manish Maheshwari has been moved to the US in a new role as senior director for revenue strategy and operations of the social media giant.

    According to media reports, Maheshwari will relocate to San Francisco and report to Twitter senior director for global strategy & operations, Deitra Mara. In his new role, Maheshwari will focus on new markets at the US-based microblogging site.

    Twitter vice president Japan and Asia Pacific, Yu Sasamoto, shared the development in a tweet. “Thank you to @manishm for your leadership of our Indian business over the past 2+ years. Congrats on your new US-based role in charge of revenue strategy and operations for new markets worldwide. Excited to see you lead this important growth opportunity for Twitter (sic),” Sasamoto wrote on Friday.
    Maheshwari had been in the news ever since he was summoned by the Ghaziabad Police under Section 41-A of the CrPC in June. The move follows Twitter’s frequent bitter tussles with the Indian government over the new social media rules.

    An FIR was registered against Maheshwari and some others in connection with a probe related to a video of an alleged hate crime that went viral on social media. Besides this, as MD of Twitter India, Maheshwari has been booked in a number of cases in several states.

    Before joining Twitter, Maheshwari was the CEO of Network18 digital. Previously, he has worked with companies like Flipkart, Intuit, P&G, McKinsey & Company.

  • Tussle between Centre and Twitter intensifies

    KOLKATA: The conflict between Twitter and the Indian government gets even murkier as the microblogging site has “failed to comply” with new IT rules. According to multiple reports, Twitter has lost its legal protection as an intermediary over non-compliance with the rules, which could impact its business overall as India remains one of the most critical markets for the platform. According to an estimate, the platform has a user base of 1.75 crore in India, which is one of its top five markets.

    “Numerous queries are arising as to whether Twitter is entitled to safe harbour provision. However, the simple fact of the matter is that Twitter has failed to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines that came into effect from the 26th of May,” union information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted on Wednesday.

    Prasad further added it has deliberately chosen the path of non-compliance despite multiple opportunities. His statement amid the reports of Twitter losing its “safe harbour” immunity has raised the question on Twitter’s future in India.

    On the other side, Twitter said that it appointed an interim chief compliance officer in line with the new rules and it would share the details with the IT ministry soon. As per the rules, each significant social media intermediary is required to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies, and a resident grievance officer. All three should be resident Indians.

    “These rules are only about setting out the procedures that need to be followed by the intermediaries if they want to continue to get the protection of safe harbour under section 79. The principle of intermediaries is that ordinarily, you will be not liable to whatever content you carry because it is presumed the platforms do not know what they are carrying. Therefore, the platforms will get the benefit of the doubt. But the benefit of the doubt will only extend to the situation where you are told this is wrong and you need to take it down,” TMT Law Practice managing partner Abhishek Malhotra explained.

    Twitter has already been named in an FIR concerning an incident in Ghaziabad’s Loni. “There is no communal angle to the incident in Loni where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off. The following entities — The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr Shama Mohammed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Slaman Nizami — without checking the fact, started giving communal colour to the incident on Twitter and suddenly they started spreading messages to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities,” the Ghaziabad Police said in the FIR.

    India is one of the top five markets for Twitter. There are apprehensions that Twitter can be even banned if this tussle continues. The platform recently faced the heat in Nigeria.

    “Twitter admittedly is yet to comply with IT Rules, 2021 and as the law stands as on date, the government may decide to revoke its ‘intermediary’ status thereby taking away the immunity enjoyed by it against the content published on the platform by its millions of users,” partner at Bharucha & Partners Kaushik Moitra said.

    However, any action initiated by the Government must be tested in the freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the Constitution of India, he noted further.

  • India’s Koo eyes expansion in Nigeria after the country bans Twitter

    KOLKATA:Twitter’s Indian substitute social media platform Koo is expanding its operations in Nigeria by adding local languages, besides leveraging the ‘talk to type’ feature on its application. The move comes after the microblogging site Twitter was banned in the African country.

    “Now the platform is available in Nigeria. We’re thinking of enabling the local languages there too. What say?,” co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna asked Saturday.

    The federal government of Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter indefinitely in the country on 4 June. Notably, the ban was announced two days after the microblogging site deleted an “abusive” tweet made by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and suspended his account for 12 hours.

    As per a PTI report, Koo’s Radhakrishna said the platform is keen on making inroads into the Nigerian market. Now, the country has an opportunity for microblogging sites, he added. Koo will abide by the local laws of each country that it operates in, he mentioned.

    Koo was founded in March 2020 as a micro-blogging platform in Indian languages. It also rolled out the ‘talk to type’ feature in March, so anyperson may share their thoughts easily with minimal keyboard interface, in a targeted drive to tap regional markets.

    The platform started getting attention at the beginning of this year amid the Twitter-Indian government standoff.

    Endorsed by government officials, Koo has verified handles of MeitY, MyGov, Digital India, India Post, National Informatics Centre (NIC), National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Common Services Center, UMANG app, Digi Locker, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to name a few.

    Twitter has been constantly in conflict with the Indian government especially now, over the compliance of the new IT rules. The government on Saturday issued ‘one last notice’ to Twitter Inc asking it to immediately comply with the new IT rules, failing which it could face stern action and lose exemption from liability under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000.

    It is will be interesting for not only Nigerian but also Indian social media users to see how Koo fares, as a replacement brand for the banned Twitter in Nigeria.

    In similar fashion, when TikTok, the Chinese application was banned in India, another Indian application Chingari was able to leverage itself with some level of success in India. Even Chingari enjoyed apparent Indian government approval. 

    If Koo succeeds in Nigeria, it will bolster its confidence to compete with Twitter in India with renewed vigor. And in the eventuality of an Indian ban on Twitter over the current noncompliance of the new IT rules, even seek to become the preferred alternative choice over Indian social media. 

    As per reports, Koo has already complied with the new rules and shared the necessary information with the government.

  • Twitter Blue: A subscription-led future of Twitter?

    Twitter Blue: A subscription-led future of Twitter?

    KOLKATA: Is Twitter gearing up to launch a subscription service? Yes, say reports. The microblogging site is considering the launch of Twitter Blue priced at $2.99 per month, according to an independent researcher.

    One of its most interesting features is “undo tweet” which could allow users to prevent a tweet from being sent. Users can even customise time intervals for undoing tweets. The subscription model also includes planned features that would help users to save and organise tweets into collections.

    The company has been gradually taking multiple steps in recent times to explore other revenue streams as its advertising-led model is facing several new challenges. For example, Apple’s recently launched App Tracking Transparency for all iPhones with iOS 14 forcing developers to ask users for permission before they can track them. Twitter is now asking users to give consent for tracking to ‘keep ads relevant’.

    Earlier this month, it acquired Scroll, a subscription service that removes ads from participating news sites. It “will become a meaningful addition to our subscription work as we build and shape a future subscription service on Twitter,” Twitter product vice president Mike Park wrote in a blog post after the acquisition.

    Twitter reported $1.04 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2021, up 28 per cent year-on-year. It also posted a profit of $68 million, turning back its business from $8.4 million in losses a year ago. Advertising revenue totalled $899 million, an increase of 32 per cent and total ad engagements increased 11 per cent year-over-year. However, monetizable daily active users (mDAU) grew about 20 per cent to 199 million, falling slightly below the analysts’ expectation of 200 million

  • Twitter’s monetisable daily active users grow 20% to 199 mn

    Twitter’s monetisable daily active users grow 20% to 199 mn

    KOLKATA: Microblogging site Twitter reported $1.04 billion revenue for the first quarter of 2021, up 28 per cent year-on-year. It also posted a profit of $68 million, turning back its business from $8.4 million in losses a year ago.

    Advertising revenue totaled $899 million, an increase of 32 per cent and total ad engagements increased 11 per cent year-over-year.

    “Q1 was a solid start to 2021, with total revenue of $1.04 billion up 28 per cent year-over-year, reflecting accelerating year-over-year growth in MAP (mobile application promotion) revenue and brand advertising that improved throughout the quarter,” Twitter CFO Ned Segal said.

    Despite its so-called “solid” performance, Twitter’s stock price dropped nine per cent after reporting Q1 earnings that only narrowly exceeded Wall Street estimates. Analysts had forecast the company would add eight million users during the quarter to surpass 200 million global users overall, as opposed to the one million daily users reported by the social platform.

    “Advertisers continue to benefit from updated ad formats, improved measurement, and new brand safety controls, contributing to 32 per cent year-over-year growth in ad revenue in Q1,” he added.

    The social media network’s monetisable daily active users (mDAU) grew about 20 per cent to 199 million, falling slightly below the analysts’ expectation of 200 million. Average US mDAU were 38 million for Q1, compared to 33 million in the same period of the previous year, and also bettering the count of 37 million in the previous quarter. On the other hand, international mDAU were 162 million for Q1, compared to 133 million in the same period of the previous year and against 155 million in the previous quarter.

    The company has guided total revenue to be between $980 million and $1.08 billion for Q2.

    “People turn to Twitter to see and talk about what’s happening, and we are helping them find their interests more quickly while making it easier to follow and participate in conversations,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said.

    “Average monetisable DAU reached 199 million, up 20 per cent year over year and up seven million sequentially, driven by ongoing product improvements and global conversation around current events,” he noted.

    This quarter also marked Twitter’s first period mostly without the presence of former US president Donald Trump after he was banned from the service following the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington DC. Speculations are rife in the industry corridors that Trump plans on starting his own social media site to go head to head with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

  • Twitter to spotlight the best cricket campaigns with League of Brands

    Twitter to spotlight the best cricket campaigns with League of Brands

    KOLKATA: With the commencement of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021), microblogging site Twitter is kick-starting League of Brands on 9 April. It will highlight outstanding cricket campaigns by brands on the service throughout the upcoming season. Powered by Twitter data, League of Brands will recognise six star campaigns by brands as they take to Twitter to keep their audiences engaged in the midst of the cricket-fueled adrenaline.

    League of Brands, utilising Twitter’s Branded Notifications feature, will also let people opt-in for alerts on the latest cricket ads across the season, simply by liking the tweet from @TwitterMktgIN.

    Every cricket season, Twitter turns into a virtual playground with fans starting and joining conversations around their favourite match moments. With the service’s ability to amplify moments in real-time and create ripples across timelines, brands across the spectrum take to the service, utilising the package of its conversational nature, a range of customisable ad-offerings, as well as, its receptive audience to deliver some noteworthy engagement campaigns.

    For League of Brands, Twitter Next – the brand strategy team at Twitter, and Twitter marketing India (@TwitterMktgIN) will screen through campaigns and place the spotlight on the brands that stand out of the crowd. Brands and campaigns will be recognised across six categories –

    ●       The All-Star: The brand to drive the highest volume of conversations on Twitter throughout the season.

    ●       The Sixer: The brand to garner the most Retweets on a single campaign Tweet from the brand’s handle.

    ●       The Doosra: The brand without a national TV spot to drive the largest overall conversation.

    ●       The Most Creative Play: The brand that makes the best use of Twitter to break through the clutter, beyond promoted Tweets and video.

    ●       The Fan Favourite: The brand to drive strongest positive sentiment for a campaign.

    ●       The (re)Play of the Game: The brand with the most engagements on a single video Tweet from the brand’s handle. 

    This time the most-talked about brands on the service would be the real game-winners.

  • Twitter launches multilingual initiatives ahead of assembly polls 2021

    Twitter launches multilingual initiatives ahead of assembly polls 2021

    KOLKATA: With the #AssemblyElections2021 taking place in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry, Twitter has unveiled a series of initiatives focused on encouraging informed and healthy conversations between candidates, political parties, citizens, media, and society.  

    The initiatives include an information search prompt with the Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) and state election commissions to provide reliable information around the elections; a custom emoji to encourage participation; a series of pre-bunks and de-bunks to tackle election-related misinformation; and a youth discussion series titled #DemocracyAdda aimed at voter literacy and civic participation among young Indians for the #AssemblyElections2021. These will be activated across six languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese and Malayalam, in order to cater to audiences across India. Additionally, to put a spotlight on women in Indian politics, the service will be bringing back #HerPoliticalJourney, a video series where  women political leaders talk about their personal stories  with leading women news journalists.

    Twitter India public policy & government manager Payal Kamat said, "Public conversation is critical during elections, and Twitter is where this unfolds. With digital penetration accelerating in India, more people now have access to credible, authoritative and timely information – crucial tools for exercising their civic rights. By leveraging the power of the Open Internet, we are encouraging people across India to be a part of the #AssemblyElections2021 conversation. None of this would be possible without support from the Election Commission of India, the State Election Commissions, and hope our efforts contribute to healthy and vibrant civic dialogue.”

    Election information prompt

    Twitter’s new information search prompt  will make it easy to find credible and authoritative information about candidate lists, voting dates, polling booths, and EVM voter registration, among other election-related topics. 

    The ‘Election information prompt’ will be active in six languages including Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Hindi, and English, supporting more than 20 hashtags. Some of the hashtags include: #विधानसभाचुनाव2021, #বাংলার ভোট 2021, #കേരളാതെരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പ്2021, #অসমনিৰ্বাচন২০২১, #தமிழ்நாடுதேர்தல்2021, #புதுச்சேரிவாக்கெடுப்பு2021

    Custom emoji 

    Twitter has launched a custom emoji for the #AssemblyElections2021 to stimulate participation in election-related discussions. Featuring an inked finger to represent a citizen who has exercised their right to vote, the emoji is available now until 10 May 2021. People can Tweet in English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Assamese and Tamil to activate the emoji. 

    Pre-Bunks and De-Bunks

    Staying ahead of potentially misleading information about how and where to vote, Twitter is publishing a series of pre-bunk prompts across languages including English, Hindi, Tamil and Bengali based on content by the national and state election commissions and civil society partners such as Youth Ki Awaz, Association of Democratic Reforms. The prompts will appear on people’s home timelines and in Search, including information about how to register to vote, and details on EVMs and VVPATs. The prompts will also serve the public with relevant voting information about booths, postal ballots, Covid2019 restrictions and accessibility, among other topics. Additionally, the service will focus on de-bunking critical issues as they arise with a curated Twitter Moment. These Moments are created based on high standards of accuracy, impartiality and fairness and are designed to feature compelling, original, and diverse content.

    #DemocracyAdda 

    With the youth of the nation engaging in high quality discussions on the service, Twitter, in partnership with Youth Ki Awaaz (@YouthKiAwaaz), is bringing back its multilingual youth discussion series #DemocracyAdda, aimed at voter literacy and civic participation among young Indians for #AssemblyElections2021. The series will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali. Twitter will be hosting live video sessions and Tweet chats with young citizens, civil society groups, changemakers and representative candidates to talk about key issues including gender equality, employment, education, health, among others. 

    #HerPoliticalJourney

    While women leaders are making their presence felt in Indian politics, election coverage continues to be largely male-dominated. With this in mind, Twitter is launching the second season of #HerPoliticalJourney, a video series to put the spotlight on women in Indian politics and their personal stories of challenges and triumph. The series aims to raise awareness about the systemic challenges women face when pursuing political careers. The series will feature women leaders such in conversation with leading women news journalists. The videos will be recorded in English, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Assamese. 

  • Gaming & entertainment content are emerging as major growth areas for Twitter in Asia: Maya Hari

    Gaming & entertainment content are emerging as major growth areas for Twitter in Asia: Maya Hari

    KOLKATA: It has been a while now since when the digital platforms have started reorienting their focus on the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Amid intense competition, Twitter is also tapping into the new wave of users across the market. While the California-based social media platform has been scaling its operations gradually in the region, gaming and media-entertainment are emerging as key potential segments.

    At the second phase of APOS 2020, Twitter APAC VP & managing director Maya Hari spoke about the interesting consumption behaviour which emerged this year. Twitter recorded 45 million conversations around gaming- in just the first four months of 2020 in the southeast Asia region, up nearly 50 per cent year-on-year. The predominantly millennial internet audience is preferring gaming with social interactivity more.

    The social media platform polled users at the end of the first half of this year. Nearly half of the users in Australia have two subscriptions for content but interestingly over a third of Twitter users have more than two subscriptions for entertainment content. Despite this, the users were willing to access more entertainment content. In addition to that, tweets of live videos also doubled in the first half of the year. 

    This massive upsurge is not a surprising trend because gaming and entertainment consumption has been seeing an upward trend for quite some time now. What these changed circumstances have done is the expediting of this process in a more “pronounced fashion." However, due to the absence of new film releases, TV and OTT content have seen massive consumption this year.

    “One of the big elements that we are focusing on is partnering around premium video content and this has been a consistent strategy for the past two-three years. In Asia, we have partnered with over 60 content creators including broadcasters, content rights owners across the region. Our focus has been this year has challenged as large scale sports and events have been challenged. We found that better balance in being able to drive monetisation around content has come from getting brands to double down on cultural moments or market at scale,” Hari said.

    Other social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube are also aggressively upping their focus on the region. As Hari pointed out, the experience of live videos sets Twitter apart from its foes. She termed the concurrent audience around live moments as the crown jewel of the platform. Hence, all of Twitter’s partnerships with publishers, the content providers are being driven around that pillar. The depth of fan engagement around premium video has been another key differentiator.  

    “I have been driving the region for a little over three years and it has been consistently exciting with the ability to grow and innovate. We have talked about how APAC has been a growth engine for us, even coming out of Q2, we had recovery in markets of Asia to be ahead of the world and some parts of the market were on year-on-year growth territory. So, it has been a really exciting region to lead,” Hari revealed. 

    Twitter has witnessed 37 per cent year-on-year growth on the monetizable daily active users (DAUs) in the international markets. Talking about the different regions, north Asia offers incredible growth opportunities, especially in terms of gaming. Hari mentioned that south east Asia has been very interesting in case of rapid adaptation of any product. She also added that brand marketers are willing to put their money where the mouth is. 

    “India has been a very strategic market for a while. We are constantly thinking to bring new product innovations there. We launched Fleets recently and we have seen the usage of Fleets to be very interesting. There is always something unique about that market in terms of how it adapts and embraces content,” Hari highlighted.

    Although the growth of digital platforms has been tremendous lately, Social media companies have been under pressure about the proliferation of misinformation on their platforms. Speaking on this issue, Hari emphasised that the platform is highly focused on healthy conversations both globally and regionally. According to her, the understanding of the right combination of automation, content review and human intervention could be an answer to the threat of fake information. The platform used past experiences to keep away misinformation during Covid2019 as well. “It's something we are very committed to. Its one of the largest and biggest focus for us to make sure that the health of the conversations on the platform is strong,” she signed off.

  • Twitter celebrates IWD2020 with a tribute to voices that inspire #EveryWoman

    Twitter celebrates IWD2020 with a tribute to voices that inspire #EveryWoman

    MUMBAI: Twitter has been at the epicentre of powerful public conversations and women’s movements have been a part of that. For instance, in the first few months of 2020 there was an 87 per cent growth in conversations in India to do with women’s day and women’s empowerment when compared to the same months in 2019 (1 Jan – 25 Feb). 

    Globally, there have been 125 million tweets about feminism and equality over the past three years. Conversations are closely tied to International Women’s Day, as Twitter has seen a spike in Tweet volume over the past three years on and immediately surrounding 8 March. To celebrate the day this year, Twitter has launched a special emoji that is activated with the hashtags #EveryWoman and #प्रत्येकमहिला. 

    Speaking about the campaign, Twitter VP Asia Pacific Maya Hari said, “At Twitter, we see incredibly vibrant and diverse voices on our platform, from those engaging in joyful everyday conversations, to strong women who raise awareness about issues that matter. Through #EveryWoman, we want to highlight every shade and every kind of Indian woman, and honour those who are transforming how we are perceived in the workplace and beyond.”

    The platform will be celebrating five inspiring women; Tamil playback singer Chinmayi Sripaada (#VoiceOfChange), runner Dutee Chand(#RecordBreaker), scientist and entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (#Catalyst), CNBC TV18 managing editor Shereen Bhan (#TwitterTurk), and former minister of external affairs late Sushma Swaraj (#TwitterDiplomat).

    Speaking about the initiative as well as conversations by women on the platform, Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari said, “Twitter is committed to powering positive change by fostering healthy conversations, sharing stories that inspire, and highlighting individuals who create real impact through Twitter. As a company committed to ensuring inclusivity and diversity, #IWD2020 is particularly special to us. In fact, Indians are the second largest group to follow @TwitterWomen after Americans. It is our honour to acknowledge these incredible Indian voices who make conversations on Twitter interesting and vibrant, inspiring #EveryWoman while at it.”

  • Twitter India hosts week-long celebrations to mark International Women’s Day

    Twitter India hosts week-long celebrations to mark International Women’s Day

    MUMBAI: From #EqualPay to #MeToo, a single Tweet has the potential to turn into a worldwide movement, with women across geographies uniting in solidarity and attempting to bring about positive changes. This International Women’s Day, Twitter India is kicking off a week-long celebration of women, starting with honouring 50 rising women achievers  at the #WebWonderWomen (WWW) event in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development and human rights organization Breakthrough, in order to share their stories and ignite dialogues that aim to empower women across the country.

    Twitter is also introducing a custom emoji to add colour to the global conversation around International Women’s Day 2019. People in India and across the world can join the celebration and Tweet with the emoji using the hashtags #नारीशक्ति, #हमसेहैहिम्मत, #महिलादिवस,, #IWD2019, #InternationalWomensDay and #SheInspiresMe. The golden emoji is the gender symbol for females and an ode to the modern woman who is courageous and expressive. The emoji will be active from 7th March until the end of the month.

    Tweet with #IWD2019, #InternationalWomensDay and #SheInspiresMe to activate the special emoji

    #WebWonderWomen Awards

    Earlier this year, Twitter India in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development and human rights organization Breakthrough launched the #WebWonderWomen (WWW) campaign. With an objective to elevate women’s voices, celebrating impacts both big and small, and giving a platform for social change, the campaign called out to people to nominate their favourite Indian woman achiever with her Twitter @handle anywhere in the world.

    The campaign received over 300+ inspiring entries across the following categories: Health/Fitness Community, Media, Literature, Art, Sports, Tech/STEM, Travel, Business, Legal/Policy, Governmental, Entertainment, Fashion/Beauty, Finance, Food, Environment. Shortlisting 50 entries through public voting and jury selection, Twitter felicitated these women at the #WebWonderWomen (WWW) event on March 6th, 2019. Here are the finalists:

    These finalists will further be invited to present their work to Smt. Maneka Gandhi, Minister of Women and Child Development, wherein they would get a chance to narrate their journeys and how they have been using Twitter for Good. They will also get a chance to be a part of a specially curated workshop on social media skills by Breakthrough and will be profiled and featured in Q&As with Twitter India.

    #SheInspiresMe Digital Mentorship series with Women leaders

    Additionally, Twitter will join hands with ELLE India (@ELLEINDIA) to co-host a day-long series of digital mentorship sessions with women leaders. The series of 20-minute interactive videos will be live-streamed from @ELLEINDIA all day on March 7, and can be attended exclusively on Twitter. The video series will feature women achievers at the very top of their game sharing their trade secrets and hard-won wisdom with users, and dialoguing with them. Women leaders across fields including educationist Neerja Birla (@NeerjaBirla), restaurateur Gauri Devidayal (@gauridetails), illustrator and poet Priyanka Paul (@artwhoring), actors Kubbra Sait (@kubbrasait) and Maanvi Gagroo (@maanvigagroo), director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari (@ashwinyiyer) and internet sensation Prajakta Koli (@iamMostlySane) will present learning sessions for women in the workforce and also address questions on how women can tackle issues in the workplace, sourced through Twitter. People can interact with speakers by tagging them and using the hashtag #SheInspiresMe to get their questions answered.

    Speaking about the initiative, Supriya Dravid, editor-in-chief of ELLE India said, “ELLE is all about celebrating inspiring women who make us believe in the importance of colouring outside the lines. We are so thrilled to partner with Twitter this Women’s Day. Through our collective initiative, we hope that we will be able to get an insight on how they destroy stereotypes and zoom way past glass ceilings to create their own silver linings. The force is and will always be female.”

    In addition, Twitter will be hosting a panel of women leaders in the technology and media industry, in association with @SheThePeopleTV to discuss women empowerment and leadership in the digital era. The session will be live streamed on Twitter and will feature Upasana Taku, Co-founder, MobiKwik; Kavita Devi, Co-founder and Digital head, Khabar Lahariya, and Nishtha Sathyam, UN Women’s Deputy Representative; the panel will be moderated by Shaili Chopra of @SheThePeopleTV. The panel will talk about how media and tech innovation can help increase and amplify women's voices.

    Join the International Women’s Day conversation and spotlight the women who inspire you with the hashtag #SheInspiresMe, and Twitter India will review and add them to the list where relevant