Who is Ankit Fadia? A rather confused nation wants to know

Here's what we do know about Ankit Fadia: he's an author and India's most famous 'ethical hacker', which is a real thing. This is the man whose claim to fame is his first book at the age of 15, The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking. A book which according to this report, is a 'little over 32 per cent plagiarised'.

Since then, some more of his books got published, and his own website was hacked into. Twice.

With powerful credentials such as these, it is not really shocking that when Ankit posted this message on his Facebook page, the nation came down with a collective case of hysterical rage.

Two denials and a confirmation: The curious case of Ankit Fadia

What happened next, has sadly not left any minds blown. The government made two u-turns in the span of two days. And since it has been known to happen from time to time, we're just going to take it in our stride and not complain.

After first denying Ankit's claim, and then deleting the denial, PIB has now issued fresh notice that Ankit is in fact one of the four brand ambassadors of Digital India.

As are Satwat Jagwani, All India IIT-JEE - Advanced Topper (2015), Krati Tiwari, All India IIT-JEE - Advanced Girl Topper (2015), Ankit Fadia, and Pranav Mistry.

Or to summarize it, two students, a computer scientist and an ethical hacker.

Twitter, of course, continues to be merciless:

Maybe Ankit Fadia hacked into the PMO and got himself appointed Brand Ambassador for Digital... hehe... too impossible to even be a joke.

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) September 28, 2015

Ankit Fadia's a brand ambassador of #DigitalIndia. Milind Soman will soon be getting a call very soon for the prowess shown in 16 December.

— Akshar (@AksharPathak) September 28, 2015

Isn't Kamaal R Khan as qualified as Ankit Fadia to be an ambassador for Digital India? He has done so much for Twitter.

— lindsay pereira (@lindsaypereira) September 30, 2015

Fail to understand why people are so worked up over Ankit Fadia. Haven't we got Smriti Irani in HRD?

— SonaliRanade (@sonaliranade) September 29, 2015

Ankit Fadia changed from being Rahul Dravid of hacking to Rahul Gandhi of hacking

— Sunil (@akshaykanitkar) September 29, 2015

Ankit Fadia brand ambassador of Digital India? Why not Sonam Kapoor, didn't you see her skills in Players?

— Gappistan Radio (@GappistanRadio) September 28, 2015

Ankit Fadia is the brand ambassador of Digital India. *laughs frantically* *dies*

— Bibhas Debnath (@bibhasdn) September 28, 2015