Deepfake Shared As N Sitharaman, RBI Chief Endorsing Investment Project

A video featuring Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das promoting the Government’s ‘income-generating platform’ is being widely shared on social media. The video purportedly shows them urging Indian citizens to invest Rs 21,000 in the project, promising returns of Rs 15 lakh in a month. Let’s verify the authenticity of this video.

Claim: Nirmala Sitharaman and Shaktikanta Das are promoting a government income-generating project, urging people to invest Rs 21,000 to receive returns of Rs 15 lakh within a month.

Fact: This video was manipulated using AI-driven facial feature alterations and voice cloning. Neither Nirmala Sitharaman nor Shaktikanta Das promoted such projects. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.

We conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video and found that the clip of Nirmala Sitharaman was taken from her News18 interview on 16 September 2024, where she discussed the Indian economy, GST, and Modi 3.0 etc. She did not mention any government income-generating project offering Rs 15 lakh returns for a Rs 21,000 investment.

Similarly, the clip of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das was taken from his Post-Monetary Policy Press Conference on 09 October 2024, where he did not promote any such scheme.

Upon close inspection, discrepancies in Mr Sitharaman and Mr Das’s voice and lip movements were evident. AI detection tools like Truemedia and Hive confirmed that the video was manipulated using AI-driven facial feature alterations and voice cloning. Furthermore, the link (archive) embedded beneath the viral video directs users to a phishing website designed to mimic the India Today website, aiming to harvest user data.

Addressing the issue, on 19 November 2024, RBI issued a clarification (archive) stating that neither the RBI Governor nor any other officials were promoting such platforms and confirmed that the videos were fake. The RBI also cautioned the public against falling for such scams on social media. FACTLY has debunked numerous deepfake videos designed to scam the public. Relevant fact-check articles can be seen here, here, and here.

To sum up, the video of Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das promoting a government income-generating project is fake.

(This story was originally published by Factly, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)