The viral footage featuring Nirmala Sitharaman and Shaktikanta Das has been manipulated with AI-generated voice overlays.
Claim: Nirmala Sitharaman and Shaktikanta Das are endorsing a government-backed income-generating scheme, encouraging individuals to invest ₹21,000 with a promise of receiving ₹15 lakh in returns 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.
A manipulated video featuring Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das promoting an investment platform has surfaced online. The video uses old visuals of Sitharaman and Das engaging with the media, which have been overlaid with AI-generated voice clones. The altered footage seemingly shows Sitharaman claiming that a one-time investment of ₹21,000 can yield millions, while Das appears to endorse the platform as legal and verified by the government.
Several e-news platforms performed a reverse image search on keyframes from the viral video and discovered that the footage of Nirmala Sitharaman originated from her News18 interview on September 16, 2024. In the interview, she discussed topics such as the Indian economy, GST, and Modi 3.0. There was no mention of any government income-generating scheme promising ₹15 lakh returns for a ₹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.
On November 19, 2024, the RBI issued a clarification (archived), stating that neither the RBI Governor nor any other officials were endorsing such platforms and confirmed the videos to be fake. The RBI also warned the public to remain vigilant against such scams circulating on social media. FACTLY has previously exposed several deepfake videos aimed at deceiving the public.
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)
