Indians took to the social networking site Twitter in large numbers on Friday greatly impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden speech on the country's 68th Independence Day.

Reacting to Modi's speech from the Red Fort here, @PriyalGuliani wrote: "I liked this speech… Rape…cleanliness.. equality ..communal violence .. development."

Another Twitter user, @sanjeevsanyal said: "Wow, what a speech! PM Modi lays out a clear, actionable vision for India. Now over to implementation."

User @smitabarooah said that after the prime minister's "inspiring" speech, "Believe our nation has a roadmap, our nation is in safe hands".

Another user @rashneek wrote: "Great to hear names of Aurbindo Vivekananda and Lal Bahadur in an independence speech. A truly inspiring speech from toilets to technology."