A video purportedly featuring journalist Arnab Goswami stating that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has introduced a highly lucrative investment platform, where an outlay of ₹21,000 could generate returns of ₹5.5 lakh in just a week, is being shared on social media platforms.
Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as this video is generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
What we found: At first, we divided the viral clip into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.
This led us to a video posted on Sitharaman's official YouTube channel on 6 November 2025.
It showed her giving an opening speech at the 12th SBI Banking and Economics Conclave 2025 in Mumbai on the topic “Realising the Vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
The backdrop and her clothing matched with the viral video, verifying that the clip was recorded during this event
We went through the entire speech however, did not find any reference to the claims being made in the viral video.
News reports covering the event also made no reference to the viral claim.
Additionally, Goswami and Sitharaman's voices in the viral clip did not seem to match their actual tones and voices.
This led us to check the video on AI-detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter which revealed that the video was AI-generated.
PIB clarification: Press Information Bureau (PIB)'s fact-check unit also confirmed that the video was not real and AI-generated.
Conclusion: The viral clip is created using AI and is not a real incident as claimed on social media.
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