PM on Facebook, Indian leaders plug in

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks during a news conference in Chennai in this May 9, 2009 file photo. Singh is the latest among India's plugged-in generation to join social networking site Facebook.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Regular updates, videos of speeches and links to media clippings -- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the latest among India's plugged-in generation to join social networking site Facebook.

Singh's profile on Facebook is regularly updated and has a picture of him in his trademark blue turban.

"I now notice there is a Facebook site which is regularly updated. So he is on Facebook," Singh's former media advisor Sanjaya Baru said during a panel discussion on Indian television channel NDTV.

Baru said Singh is otherwise not internet savvy and does not keep a cell phone.

Politicians in a newly-wired India are increasingly making use of social networking sites and weblogs to connect with the country's growing young and computer-literate generation.

Most politicians, including leader of opposition Lal Krishna Advani, write personal blogs. Young parliamentarians like Rahul Gandhi maintain profiles on Facebook.

India's Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor has a Twitter page and his regular 'Tweets' have aroused the curiosity of fellow politicians.

"What amused me is the number of politicians who have come up to me and expressed curiosity about it from both sides of the aisle… opposition as well as government.

"In fact the Prime Minister asked me what this is all about… He wanted to know what Twitter was. So there is a lot of curiosity," Tharoor told NDTV.

Internet celebrates its 40 years this week.