Raju beats Obama on web popularity charts!

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) He may be popular for all the
wrong reasons, but disgraced founder of India's beleaguered IT
major Satyam, Ramalinga Raju has beaten US President-elect
Barack Obama on internet popularity charts in India, and is
closing the gap abroad too.

By now infamous IT czar Raju shot to limelight earlier
this month after disclosing what has emerged as the country's
biggest ever corporate fraud in India and has been called
"India's Enron" right from the word go.

Google's search volume index shows Raju and Obama were
generating almost equal searches from India during the first
six days of the year, with Obama leading by a small margin.

However, Raju jumped up the charts on January 7, when he
admitted to a massive fraud of about Rs 7,800 crore.

The search volumes for Raju are estimated to have been
over 10 times more than that of Obama on January 7, after
which it has been declining consistently but Raju is still
holding an edge over the US President-elect.

In terms of search volumes generated from various
regions, Raju's own state Andhra Pradesh is on top, followed
by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi. In
terms of cities too, the maximum search volume has been from
Hyderabad, where both Raju and Satyam are based, followed by
Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Mahape and Delhi.

As regards searches for Obama, Tamil Nadu has been on the
top, followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi among the
regions. For cities, the maximum search volumes for Obama has
come from Chennai, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi.

Outside India too, Raju has generated significant search
volumes from UAE, Singapore, Finland, US, Poland, Australia,
UK, Canada and Germany, but has lagged Obama.

Raju has been searched for in Abu Dhabi, Singapore,
Dallas and San Fransisco, while search queries have come in
Polish language too, other than English. PTI