Indian Sportswomen emerge Top Newsmakers for 2016

• Yahoo releases its Year in Review for India
• ‘The Unnamed Soldier’ named ‘Personality of the Year’;
• PV Sindhu Most Searched Sportsperson;
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi Most Searched Politician

Yahoo has announced the 2016 Year in Review (YIR)* for India. The YIR is a look at the year’s top trends, happenings and events, which caught the imagination of Internet users in India. In its ninth year now, this review is based on users’ daily search habits and an editorial selection of what they read, recommended and shared most on Yahoo.

The list of Top Newsmakers, usually ruled by politicians and Bollywood stars, saw the entry of Indian Sportswomen including PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar who won laurels and dominated the headlines during Rio Olympics. Also featuring in the list was wrestler Vinesh Phogat, one of India’s best bets for a medal, who bowed out of the Olympic games at a crucial juncture due to an injury. Other top newsmakers included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Arnab Goswami and Indian politicians Arvind Kejriwal, Jayalalithaa and Subramanian Swamy, as well as Rohit Khandelwal the first Indian (and Asian) to win the Mr. World title.

‘The Unnamed Soldier’ became the ‘Personality of the Year’ for being perennially at the forefront of national consciousness. From thwarting a terrorist infiltration into the Pathankot Air Force Station to facing September’s militant attack in Uri that led to a precise and surgical retaliation from India, or being in the midst of the controversy surrounding the One Rank-One Pension scheme – the soldier was in the news all year long.

Prime minister’s demonetisation initiative, Cyrus Mistry’s dramatic exit from Tata Group and Reliance Jio’s 4G network launch were the most significant Financial Events that shook India. In fact, RJio launch made Mukesh Ambani one of the top Business Newsmakers of 2016 as well.

Sunny Leone reigned supreme as the Most Searched Personality for the fifth consecutive year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Most Searched Politician followed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The US presidential election was widely followed in India, with Donald Trump ranking as the fourth most searched politician in the country.

Salman Khan continued to be the ‘Boss’ landing the top spot for the Most Searched Male Celebrity of 2016, while stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma came in at No.2. A surprise entry in the list was Tanmay Bhat, co-founder of AIB for his controversial snapchat video.

The buzz around Bipasha Basu’s wedding to Karan Singh Grover ensured her position as the second Most Searched Female Celebrity. Deepika Padukone took the third slot followed by Katrina Kaif at No.4.

Our sportswomen also pipped the cricketers in the Most Searched Sportsperson, with PV Sindhu and Dipa Karmakar at number one and two spots. The only cricketers that made the Top 10 were Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.

Indians’ all-consuming obsession with cricket continued with ‘IPL 2016’ becoming the Most Searched Newsy term, followed by Rio Olympics and Freedom 251, the mass market phone that was much talked about for its revolutionary pricing but couldn’t sustain prolonged interest.

Kareena Kapoor Khan’s maternity wardrobe was much in vogue, while Ranveer Singh’s quirky outfits won him several accolades, making the duo the Most Stylish Male and Female Bollywood Actors of 2016. Amongst the Top Box Office Disasters, Anil Kapoor’s son Harshvardhan Kapoor’s launch movie ‘Mirzya’ was a major letdown for movie enthusiasts. Ashutosh Gowariker’s highly anticipated period drama ‘Mohenjo Daro’ and Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Fan’ were other big movies to fail miserably at the box office.

Autonomous vehicles was the Most Significant Technology Innovation of 2016, with several companies announcing their foray into driverless cars. If people’s searches are a window into the future, areas we may see growth in moving forward include Virtual Personal Assistants, Virtual and Augmented Reality and Fitness Trackers.

See Year in Review: 2016 for the complete lowdown on 2016’s biggest moments for online India.

Top Newsmakers Indian Sportswomen: PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar and Vinesh Phogat Rohit Khandelwal Jayalalithaa Arnab Goswami OROP Soldier Ram Kishan Grewal Subramanian Swamy Aam Aadmi Party, mainly Arvind Kejriwal and Sandeep Kumar	Most Searched Personality Sunny Leone Narendra Modi Arvind Kejriwal Salman Khan Bipasha Basu Deepika Padukone Katrina Kaif Priyanka Chopra Navjot Singh Sidhu PV Sindhu
Financial Events That Shook India Demonetization Introduction of new Income declaration scheme in 2016 Dramatic exit of Cyrus Mistry from Tata Group Reliance Jio’s ‘4G-only’ network launch in India Introduction of GST Strategic exit of Raghuram Rajan from the RBI Governor post and Urjit Patel stepping in Impact on India after Brexit Vijay Mallya’s great escape with Rs. 9,000-cr public money Patanjali CEO among Forbes list of richest Indians	Most Searched Politicians Narendra Modi Arvind Kejriwal Navjot Singh Sidhu Donald Trump Rahul Gandhi Subramanian Swamy P. Chidambaram Kamal Nath Hillary Clinton Vijay Rupani
Top 10 Business Newsmakers Mukesh Ambani Raghuram Rajan Arundhati Bhattacharya Cyrus Mistry Flipkart Bros: Sachin and Binny Bansal Acharya Balkrishna Nita Ambani Chanda Kochhar Vijay Mallya Aditya Ghosh	Top 10 Most Searched Newsy Terms IPL 2016 Rio Olympics Freedom 251 7th Pay Commission Budget 2016 Pathankot Attack JNU Sedition Row GST Bill Brexit Jat Reservation Agitation
Most Significant Technology Innovations Autonomous Vehicles More Focus on IoT (Internet of Things) Fitness Trackers Virtual Personal Assistants Virtual and Augmented Reality Everything Cloud 3D printing to become mainstream Faster and cleaner modes of transportation – Hyperloop Renewable Energy Drone Service	Top 10 Most Searched Sportsperson PV Sindhu Dipa Karmakar MS Dhoni Virat Kohli Sakshi Malik Lionel Messi Narsingh Yadav Sachin Tendulkar Sania Mirza Saina Nehwal
Top 10 Sports Moments Indian paralympians outshine Indian Olympians Women shine for India at Rio Olympics Portugal’s unbelievable Euro win Michael Phelp’s golden run Madrid’s goal machine Brazil seek World cup defeat revenge over Germany Love in the time of Olympics Del Potro rises from the dead Garbiñe Muguruza’s shocks Serena Williams Messi’s retirement	Top 10 Most Searched Male Celebrities Salman Khan Kapil Sharma Amitabh Bachchan Shah Rukh Khan Aamir Khan Akshay Kumar Ajay Devgn Tanmay Bhat Shahid Kapoor Ranveer Singh
Top 10 Cricketers Joe Root (Eng) Moeen Ali (Eng) Virat Kohli (Ind) R Ashwin (Ind) Yasir Shah (Pak) Kane Williamson (NZ) Carlos Brathwaite (WI) Shakib Al Hasan (BD) David Warner (Aus) Kagiso Rabada (SA)	Top 10 Most Searched Female Celebrities Sunny Leone Bipasha Basu Deepika Padukone Katrina Kaif Priyanka Chopra Pratyusha Banerjee Kareena Kapoor Khan Radhika Apte Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Anushka Sharma
Top 10 Future Stars of Cricket Babar Azam Temba Bavuma Hardik Pandya Imad Wasim Haseeb Hameed Roston Chase Mitchell Santner Jasprit Bumrah Jayant Yadav Kusal Mendis	Most Stylish Male and Female Bollywood Actors Kareena Kapoor Khan Ranveer Singh
Top 10 Fashion and Beauty Trends Off-shoulder The return of the basics Sleek middle-parted hairdos Chokers The lob Slip dresses/camisole with T-shirt Dark lips Stacks of delicate jewellery Ruffles Brushed up brows	Top Box Office Disasters Banjo Mirzya Great Grand Masti Fan Mohenjo Daro Baar Baar Dekho Shivaay Freaky Ali A Flying Jatt Azhar