AI-generated video of Rajat Sharma falsely claims that India has reduced trade with the USA by 50% and will do all trade in INR
A video is being shared on social media claiming to show Indian journalist Rajat Sharma reporting that India has decided to reduce trade with the USA by 50%, effectively cutting trade in half, and that all future trade with the USA will be conducted only in Indian Rupees (INR). Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows Rajat Sharma reporting that India has decided to reduce trade with the USA by 50% and will do all trade in INR.
Fact: The viral video does not show Rajat Sharma reporting that India has decided to reduce trade with the USA by 50% and conduct it only in INR. The original India TV News report from 17 July 2025 shows him covering other stories such as a hospital murder in Patna, Nitish Kumar’s electricity announcement, political clashes in Maharashtra, the Ahmedabad plane crash, the ED chargesheet against Robert Vadra, and floods in Jammu & Kashmir. Nowhere does he mention India–USA trade relations. Moreover, AI detection tools flagged the viral video as 99.9% AI-generated, confirming it is a deepfake. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we conducted a Google search using relevant keywords, but found no credible reports confirming that Rajat Sharma made such a statement or reported that India has decided to reduce trade with the USA by 50% and will do all trade in INR.
We then conducted a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to a news report (archived) published on the official India TV News website on 17 July 2025. The report features Rajat Sharma wearing the same attire as seen in the viral video. In the report, Rajat Sharma can be seen covering multiple stories — the daylight murder of Chandan Mishra inside Patna’s Paras Hospital, Nitish Kumar’s free electricity announcement, clashes between BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar and NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad’s supporters in the Maharashtra Assembly, the Fadnavis–Uddhav meeting, the 12 June Ahmedabad plane crash, the ED chargesheet against Robert Vadra in the Gurugram land deal case, and floods and landslides in Jammu & Kashmir that halted the Amarnath Yatra. Nowhere in the report was Rajat Sharma seen talking about India–USA trade relations or mentioning that India has decided to reduce trade with the USA by 50% and will do all trade in INR.
We noticed that the lip sync in the viral video does not match the audio. We then ran the video through the Hive AI detection tool, which confirmed that it contains AI-generated or deepfake content. Hive flagged it with an aggregate score of 99.9% AI-generated, confirming the video is fake.
To sum up, an AI-generated video of Rajat Sharma falsely claims that India has reduced trade with the USA by 50% and will do all trade in INR.