Deepfake Video Of Nirmala Sitharaman Promoting Investment Project Shared As Real

Video shows Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing an investment project that provides a stable daily income.

The post can be seen here.

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We began by scanning through the official social media handles/websites related to the Finance Ministry, but did not find any such announcement. A keyword search for “Nirmala Sitharaman” and “investment scheme” on Google, too, did not yield any credible reports on the alleged project.

A Google Lens search on the keyframes of the viral clip led us to a video shared on Sitharaman’s YouTube channel, dated April 8, 2025. It featured the Minister in the same attire and background as seen in the viral clip, and stated, “Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman’s inaugural address during a fireside chat on the ‘Opportunities and challenges for India’s quest to become a developed economy by 2047’, at India House, London.”

We skimmed through the address but did not spot Sitharaman mentioning any such investment scheme.

A comparison between the viral clip and YouTube video can be seen below. 

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We then checked a segment of the viral clip on AI detection platform Hive Moderation which concluded an overall 96.8% likelihood of the media containing AI generated or deepfake content.

Another AI audio detection tool Resemble.ai termed the voice, heard in the alleged clip of the Union Minister, as “fake.”

We ran multiple segments of the audio on Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector which found it to be “likely deepfake.”

Newschecker also ran the audio on Deepfake-O-Meter of the UB Media Forensics Lab. It checked the same on multiple detectors, most of which concluded a high probability of it being AI generated.

On clicking the link mentioned in the post, we were directed to the website of South Africa-based jewellery store ‘Silvery’, and not any investment platform.

Newschecker has debunked multiple such deepfake videos of Nirmala Sitharaman promoting suspicious investment schemes. The same can be seen here, here and here.

Hence, we find that the viral clip of Nirmala Sitharaman promoting an investment project is actually manipulated using AI.

Sources
YouTube Video By Nirmala Sitharaman, Dated April 8, 2025
Hive Moderation Website
Resemble.ai Website
Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector Tool
Deepfake-O-Meter Tool