Recently, on 07 August 2025, US President Donald Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports, citing New Delhi’s imports of Russian crude. The new rate will take effect from 27 August 2025, making India one of the most heavily taxed US trading partners. India’s top three exports to the US include pharmaceuticals. In this context, a purported video featuring prominent journalist Rajat Sharma, claiming that India has cut off 50% of its pharmaceutical exports to the USA following the recent tariff hikes, is going viral on social media platforms (here, here, and here). Through this article, let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: A video of journalist Rajat Sharma, in which he claims that India has cut off 50% of its pharmaceuticals exports to the USA following the recent tariff hikes.
Fact: This viral video is AI-generated, and there are no reports indicating that India has reduced its pharmaceuticals exports to the USA by 50% following the recent tariff hikes imposed by Donald Trump. As of 11 August 2025, the USA has not imposed tariffs on Indian pharmaceutical imports. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We performed a relevant keyword search on the internet to check whether India has indeed reduced its pharmaceutical exports to the USA by 50% following the recent import tariff hikes by the USA. However, we found no credible reports indicating that India has reduced its pharmaceutical exports to the USA by 50% following the recent tariff hikes.
Upon closer inspection of the viral video, discrepancies can be observed in journalist Rajat Sharma’s voice and lip movements while speaking. This suggests that the video may have been digitally altered or created using deepfake technology.
To verify this, we ran the video through multiple AI detection tools such as Hive and Resemble AI. These tools confirmed that the viral video contains AI-generated or deepfake content. Hive flagged the audio as being 99.5% AI-generated. Similarly, Resemble AI, a tool designed to detect AI-generated audio, also identified several segments of the video’s audio as artificially generated. This confirms that the video is fake.
Furthermore, a reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a video uploaded on the official YouTube channel of ‘India TV’ on 15 July 2025. In this video, journalist Rajat Sharma is seen wearing the same outfit, discussing the latest news of the day. Nowhere in the video does he mention India’s pharmaceutical exports to the USA or the USA imposing tariffs on India. This video also predates the date on which US President Donald Trump announced a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports.
Additionally, we contacted officials from the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India; the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers; and Pharmexcil (Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India) to verify whether India has indeed reduced its pharmaceuticals exports to the USA by 50% following the recent US tariffs, or whether India has any plans to do so. We will update this article once we receive their response.
It is worth noting that India’s total pharmaceutical exports are largely directed to the US market, and pharmaceuticals are among India’s top three exports to the USA. As of 11 August 2025, the USA has not imposed any tariffs (0%) on Indian pharmaceutical imports. More information on India’s exports to different countries can be found here and here, while specific details on pharmaceutical exports can be seen here and here.
To sum it up, this video of prominent journalist Rajat Sharma, claiming that India has cut off 50% of its pharmaceutical exports to the USA, is AI-generated.
