Yesterday, self proclaimed Hacker Ankit Fadia confirmed that he was selected as the brand ambassador of Digital India. Ankit Fadia is a well known Ethical hacker and author of several hacking books. But, this decision is seriously wrong. Not only me, there are many people who are agree with this. India deserves better brand ambassador than him. If you ask me the reason, read this article.
Who is Ankit Fadia?
Ankit Fadia is a self proclaimed hacker and got fame as ‘hacker’ due to his various claims (fake) in past. Almost all his claims never got any official confirmation from authentic sources. He got fame in India because that was the beginning era of Internet in country. Most of the people were unaware of Internet. One of his claim also made me laugh when he mentioned that US Spy agencies hired him to help in a cyber case related to terrorists. The Sunday Guardian also published an article claiming him to be a fake personality. Forbs India also published similar kind of report on fake claims of this fake hacker.
He usually conduct ethical hacking workshops across India where he only shows basic things of Internet. He got initial fame with fake claims and now he is cashing that fame. He claimed to be the best hacker of India but his own websites are not secure. There have been various incidents when his website was hacked.
If I talk about his books, almost all books offers copy content. His books are over 32% plagiarized from various popular security publications and websites. So, writing books by copying from other books does not make one an author.
Why does Ankit not fit for this?
India has so many better persons who are known for their works in the field of Information technology. A person with no contribution in Information technology but with fake claims is not a best fit for this. Fame is not the only thing, there should be some work and contribution in digital world. We can find various faces who are less popular but best fit for this. Just because he has fame, he is not the best choice. But he is actually selected because he has good PR team to represent him. See this certificate.
Ankit Fadia is the proof that good PR can actually bring success even if you have no work to show.
I also want to say that there is no official confirmation from the Indian government on this matter. It was just a photo of certificate posted by Ankit Fadia along with few other photos of the event. So, this could also be a fake one like previous claims of this person. If this is fake, he again got media attention with fake claims. If this is true, India got an under achiever as brand ambassador for the project we all are excited about.
India needs real IT experts to join Digital India
It was also reported that there will be more brand ambassadors for Digital India. Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal, Micromax founder Rahul Sharma and Snapdeal founder Rohit Bansal can also be in that list. But there is no official confirmation. There are various other names who should be considered. But, India needs someone better. Not just as an ambassador, but also in the regulatory team to make policies.
Last week, we also saw a very bad encryption polity draft. The draft was a proof that India needs IT experts in these kind of Important sectors who actually understand the pros and cons of things. People who can better make policies of things which are feasible and secure.
Twitter users have already started making fun of him. Reddit India has also invited him for AMA.
What is your view on this matter? Share your views with us via comments.
