Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (October 7, 2025) said that she has seen several deepfake videos of herself, and called for strengthening defences to maintain people’s trust. She also pitched for using technology for public good, while expressing her disappointment at “weaponising” the advancements at the global level.

The Finance Minister asserted India is a global fintech leader, which has set benchmarks in innovation, scale and inclusion. “…the simple motive is that it (technology) should be for the public good. And at no point of time it gets weaponised,” she said, while speaking at the annual Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.

“It is important to constantly remind ourselves that technology cannot be in that sense truly mastered, but having obtained certain propriety, rights over some part of it, we should refrain from weaponising it,” she added.

“The same tools that power innovation can be weaponised for deception and for fraud. I am not personalising it, but I can say that I have seen several deepfake videos of myself being circulated online, manipulated to mislead citizens, (and) distort facts,” she said at the event.

Ms. Sitharaman said we have “constantly” seen instances of inward looking attitudes along with technology advancements. The idea of “global progress itself gets questioned because of weaponising it”, the FM added. She, however, did not elaborate further or offer any specific instances that led her make the remarks.

The comments come at a time when several countries have taken measures, resulting into restrictions in trade and innovations. The U.S., the world’s largest economy and also a technology powerhouse, has made major shifts in its trade policies.

At present, India is negotiating a trade agreement with the U.S., which has chosen to slap high tariffs on Indian goods and also steeply hiked fees for H1B visa. A bulk of the H1B visas are secured by Indian tech workers.

On artificial intelligence

Ms. Sitharaman said artificial intelligence is transforming finance, governance and also everyday life, but underlined the need to ensure that the technological advances serve humanity and also called for confronting the “darker side”.

The deepfake videos are just a reminder for the “urgency” with which we need to up our defences against such actors, she said.

“The new generation fraud is no longer about breaching firewalls, it’s about hacking trust. Criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create life-like videos that can manipulate people,” she said.

Foreign currency settlement system launched

At the event, Ms. Sitharaman launched the foreign currency settlement system in GIFT IFSC, which will facilitate seamless transactions on real-time basis, enhance liquidity management, and ensure compliance.

Currently foreign currency transactions usually get settled with a lag of 36 to 48 hours. Ms. Sitharaman said with the operationalisation of the foreign currency settlement system, GIFT City joins a select list of financial centres that include Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila, and some other centres which have the infrastructure to settle foreign currency transactions locally. Mr. Sitharaman further said fintech has democratised finance in India.

“India ranks third in fintech companies and does half of world’s real-time digital transactions,” she said, adding that the government’s policy has been to play a role to nurture the fintech sector through a balanced approach. She emphasised the government’s enabling approach towards business, technology and innovation.

“We’d like to remain in the fringes and watch. We like to remain in the fringes and help…we have to enable businesses and not interrupt in their progress,” Ms. Sitharaman added. Ms. Sitharaman said, “Fintech in India has not merely digitised payments but has also democratised finance, empowering millions to save, invest, borrow and insure with transparency.”

She lauded the efforts of Sebi to address the issue of impersonation and false representation targeting investors through dedicated unified payments interface (UPI) handles.

Published – October 07, 2025 02:55 pm IST