Twitter hires Kashmir-born for prominent post

Twitter has appointed a 30-year-old online activist Raheel Khursheed as India head for “news, politics and government”, a post created exclusively in a few emerging countries including India.

Ever expanding micro-blogging site, Twitter, has appointed a 30-year-old online activist Raheel Khursheed as India head for “news, politics and government”, a post created exclusively in a few emerging countries including India.

Khursheed, who assumed his office yesterday, is well-know online activist, who spearheaded several campaigns like StopRape campaign after the infamous Delhi rape last year through change.org, another US-based online social pressure group. He also led hundreds of petitions – raising issues of injustices.

“(He will) Manage, track and expand Twitter's relationships with journalists/editors and government officials or politicians; increase the active usage of Twitter significantly among them,” says a Twitter communiqué issued from Singapore this week.

Khursheed, first Indian to assume such a position, is also assigned to “develop best practices and new story formats, and drive adoption by news, government, political users and share those with Global team.”

“Lead strategies that scale up Twitter’s reach and impact with news, government, political users of Twitter,” adds the communiqué.

The move to expand in India, according to sources, was hard pressed by the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the month of May.

Twitter has emerged as a major tool for all political parties to reach out to their respective constituencies. Most political parties, including Congress, BJP and Aam Admi Party, have dedicated teams for the mico-blogging website.

The ex-director communications at change.org, Khursheed has five years of experience in on-line activism and awareness campaigns among netizens.

Khursheed, born in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, has a masters in mass communication from Pune.

Launched in 2006, Twitter’s 140-word messaging and networking became a rage across the globe with 500 million registered till 2012. It is touted to be one of the ten most-visited websites.

Twitter also offered IPOs last year and is tipped to have a market capitalization of $32.76 billion".