Digital India: Governemnt confirms Ankit Fadia's appointment as brand ambassador after denial

Barely a week after changing its stance over the national encryption policy, the Indian government does it again, this time on the issue of the appointment of brand ambassadors for Digital India.

Ankit Fadia, who calls himself an ethical hacker claimed on Monday that he was issued a certificate to become an ambassador for Digital India a couple of months ago by the Department of Information and Technology.

However, after a controversy erupted on social media on Fadia’s qualifications which are allegedly doubted, the ministry of communications and IT issued a statement on the Press Information Bureau on Tuesday morning saying that no brand ambassadors have been appointed for the time-being.

"There were certain news reports that there is move to appoint a brand ambassador for Digital India programme of the government. This is to clarify that there has been no such move to appoint a brand ambassador as reported," said the statement.

In a matter of few hours, this statement was revoked. The reason given was that the statement was withdrawn because there was no clarity on the official position and it could so happen that some ambassadors might have been appointed.

Finally, on Tuesday evening the government cleared the air and confirmed that it had appointed four brand ambassadors for its Digital India campaign, which kick-started on July 1.

A release issued by the department of telecom said, " Satwat Jagwani, All India IIT-JEE —Advanced Topper -2015, Krati Tiwari, All India IIT-JEE—Advanced Girl Topper -2015, Ankit Fadia, Author & Ethical Hacker and Pranav Mistry, Samsung USA (Computer Scientist and author of 6th Sense)," were the four ambassadors appointed for one year.

It further stated that the services of these Brand Ambassadors will be used, as and when required for generating mass awareness for the programme.

Image credit: Indiatimes