Hyderabad:
Star shuttler from Hyderabad and Olympic medallist PV Sindhu was second, after US President-elect Donald Trump who took the top spot, in the searches by Indians for trending personalities on Google during 2016.
Following Sindhu were other Indian personalities such as gymnast Dipa Karmakar at the fourth spot and actress Disha Patani who recently made her Bollywood debut in a biopic on India’s ODI captain MS Dhoni, according to Google.
Sindhu’s fellow Olympic medallist and wrestler Sakshi Malik, and Andhra boy and badminton star Kidambi Srikanth also featured among the top 10 trending personalities in Google searches from India.
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Indians seemed to have looked beyond cricket in the year as Rio Olympics 2016 emerged as the top trending search query.
Following it closely was Pokemon Go, the game that took the world by a storm earlier this year.
Telugu and Tamil films remained popular on Google.
Superstar Rajinikanth-starrer Kabali, Theri, junior NTR’s Nannaku Prematho and Janatha Garage, Rajini Murugan, Pulimurugan, Remo, Sardar Gabbar Singh of Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun’s Sarainodu and Akkineni Nagarjuna’s Soggade Chinni Nayana made it to the top trending South Indian movies list.
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The shock victory of Donald Trump in US elections and Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union were also searched widely, reflecting growing interest of Indians in global issues, the release from Google said.
The 7th Pay commission, demonetisation and the surgical strikes on terror camps also generated a great deal of search curiosity among Indian users, it added.
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