#FactCheck: Video of IAS officer Tukaram Munde addressing students at Mumbai college falsely shared as support for protests seeking Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation
Executive Summary
A video of Maharashtra’s well-known IAS officer Tukaram Munde is going viral on social media. In the viral video, Tukaram Munde can be seen at an event where a large crowd of young people is present. It is being claimed that Munde is supporting protesters demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. CyberPeace Research found the claim to be misleading. Our research found that the viral video is from Management Conclave 26, organised at Sydenham College in Mumbai, where Tukaram Munde was addressing young students.
Claim
An X account named Ashish Kumar shared the video with the caption: “Big news! Tukaram Munde has come out in support of protesters demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar!”
https://x.com/ashishk53542554/status/2111368692508275129?s=20
Fact Check:
To verify the viral video, we conducted a reverse search of its keyframes. During our research, we found the video uploaded to Tukaram Munde’s official Instagram account on October 10. The caption read, “GenZ: The Powerhouse of Energy.
https://www.instagram.com/tukaram_ias/reel/DeUKM0UqsLl/
Further research led us to a clarification posted on the official X account of Maharashtra’s Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR), which refuted the viral claim. The post clarified that IAS officer Tukaram Munde was not supporting protesters demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Instead, the viral video is from an event where Munde was interacting with young people and describing Gen Z as a “powerhouse of energy.”
https://x.com/MahaDGIPR/status/2111486619111039072?s=20
Further research led us to a post shared by a Facebook account named Mumbai-TODAY. According to the post, Tukaram Munde addressed students at an event organised at Sydenham College in Mumbai, urging the younger generation to remain vigilant against misinformation and fake news. He emphasised the importance of critical thinking and verifying information before believing or sharing it.
He also conveyed to the youth that, in an era when misleading information can spread rapidly through social media, it is essential to be responsible and informed citizens.
Conclusion
Our research found the claim to be misleading. The viral video is from Management Conclave 26, organised at Sydenham College in Mumbai, where Tukaram Munde was addressing young people.
Related Blogs
Executive Summary
A video showing stone pelting on vehicles is being widely shared on social media and falsely linked to a campaign called the “Cockroach Janata Party.” The claim suggests that people have taken to the streets and are attacking VIP vehicles by throwing stones. CyberPeace Research Wing research found that the video is from March and shows stone pelting on a police vehicle in Mathura following the killing of “Farasa Wale Baba.”
Claim
An 18-second viral clip circulating online shows a crowd throwing stones at passing vehicles. The video also contains overlaid text reading,“Cockroach sarkon par utar chuke hain, ab koi VIP nahi, ab sab barabar hain.”Users are sharing it as part of a supposed “Cockroach Janata Party” campaign.
Fact Check
A reverse image search of key frames shows that the clip was originally uploaded on multiple social media accounts on March 22–23, where it was described as an incident from Mathura following the death of a local figure known as “Farasa Wale Baba.” In those posts, the incident was reported as stone pelting on a police vehicle by miscreants.
Further verification found the same visuals in a video posted by NDTV India on March 21, 2026, with a caption stating that it showed stone pelting on police during unrest in Mathura after the death of “Farasa Wale Baba.”
Conclusion
The researchclearly confirms that the viral video has been misrepresented. The footage is from a March incident in Mathura involving unrest following a local death, and it has no connection to any “Cockroach Janata Party” campaign or VIP-targeted violence claims.
Executive Summary:
The viral social media posts circulating several photos of Indian Army soldiers eating their lunch in the extremely hot weather near the border area in Barmer/ Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, have been detected as AI generated and proven to be false. The images contain various faults such as missing shadows, distorted hand positioning and misrepresentation of the Indian flag and soldiers body features. The various AI generated tools were also used to validate the same. Before sharing any pictures in social media, it is necessary to validate the originality to avoid misinformation.
Claims:
The photographs of Indian Army soldiers having their lunch in extreme high temperatures at the border area near to the district of Barmer/Jaisalmer, Rajasthan have been circulated through social media.
Fact Check:
Upon the study of the given images, it can be observed that the images have a lot of similar anomalies that are usually found in any AI generated image. The abnormalities are lack of accuracy in the body features of the soldiers, the national flag with the wrong combination of colors, the unusual size of spoon, and the absence of Army soldiers’ shadows.
Additionally it is noticed that the flag on Indian soldiers’ shoulder appears wrong and it is not the traditional tricolor pattern. Another anomaly, soldiers with three arms, strengtheness the idea of the AI generated image.
Furthermore, we used the HIVE AI image detection tool and it was found that each photo was generated using an Artificial Intelligence algorithm.
We also checked with another AI Image detection tool named Isitai, it was also found to be AI-generated.
After thorough analysis, it was found that the claim made in each of the viral posts is misleading and fake, the recent viral images of Indian Army soldiers eating food on the border in the extremely hot afternoon of Badmer were generated using the AI Image creation tool.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the analysis of the viral photographs claiming to show Indian army soldiers having their lunch in scorching heat in Barmer, Rajasthan reveals many anomalies consistent with AI-generated images. The absence of shadows, distorted hand placement, irregular showing of the Indian flag, and the presence of an extra arm on a soldier, all point to the fact that the images are artificially created. Therefore, the claim that this image captures real-life events is debunked, emphasizing the importance of analyzing and fact-checking before sharing in the era of common widespread digital misinformation.
- Claim: The photo shows Indian army soldiers having their lunch in extreme heat near the border area in Barmer/Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
- Claimed on: X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, Facebook
- Fact Check: Fake & Misleading
Introduction
Insurance companies hold a huge amount of sensitive data. Medical history, bank account numbers, identity proofs, years of claims records — all of it sits on insurer servers, waiting. That makes the sector an easy target. India saw close to 370 million malware attacks in a single recent year. Banking, financial services and insurance firms bore the brunt of it. That got the attention of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). On 6 April 2026, it released a new set of Information and Cyber Security Guidelines. These replace the old 2023 rules and ask insurers to take much stronger responsibility for protecting their systems, and their customers' data.
Who Must Follow These New Rules
The updated guidelines are not limited to large insurance companies alone. They apply to life, general and health insurers. They also apply to foreign reinsurance branches operating in India, and to intermediaries such as brokers, corporate agents, web aggregators and third-party administrators. Insurance repositories and the Insurance Information Bureau of India fall within scope too. Individual insurance agents, point-of-sale persons and surveyors are not covered directly. But insurers must still make sure these people follow a basic security framework approved by their board. Foreign reinsurance branches get a little more room — they can depart from a specific rule, but only if they can justify it properly to the regulator. Why cast such a wide net in the first place? Because breaches rarely start at the big insurer with the well-staffed Information Technology (IT) team. They start with the small broker or corporate agent who never got around to updating a password policy.
A Stronger Role for the Boardroom
An Independent CISO (Chief Information Security Officer)
The clearest change sits right at the top. A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) can no longer report to the Head of Information Technology (IT). Nor can the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) be handed sales targets or any other business goal. Why does this matter so much? Picture a CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) who answers to the same person pushing hard for a product launch next week. Flagging a serious vulnerability suddenly becomes an awkward, career-risking conversation. The IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) has simply removed that awkwardness by rule.
More Frequent Oversight
The Information Security Risk Management Committee used to meet only twice a year. Now it must meet at least once every quarter. A new Information Technology (IT) Steering Committee has also been set up to handle day-to-day technology decisions. This frees the risk committee to focus purely on oversight. There's also a new seat at the table: at least one outside cybersecurity expert must now join the Risk Management Committee. Someone with no stake in internal politics, no department to protect, just technical judgement.
Faster Action When Something Goes Wrong
A Six-Hour Reporting Deadline
No system is completely safe from attack. So the guidelines also focus heavily on how insurers respond once something goes wrong. Every cybersecurity incident now has to reach the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team within six hours of being spotted, with the IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) and other regulators looped in at the same time. Six hours is a tight deadline. It means insurers need detection and escalation systems that work round the clock, not just during office hours.
Testing and Exceptions
Business continuity and disaster recovery plans must be tested at least once a year, and not through some comfortable, pre-planned shutdown either — the test has to feel like a real disaster. Exceptions to security policy are also handled with far more discipline now. A short exception of up to three months can be approved by the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) alone. One lasting between three months and a year needs sign-off from the risk committee. Anything longer needs approval from the board itself. Gaps found during audits must be closed within twelve months, with the board tracking progress at every stage.
Looking Ahead to Tomorrow's Risks
The guidelines do not stop at today's threats. More insurers are moving their operations to the cloud. So the rules now demand stronger contracts with cloud vendors, and a clear plan for what happens to customer data once a vendor relationship ends. Third-party risk gets close attention too. Many security breaches in the financial sector start with a vendor, not with the insurer's own systems. Before hiring any vendor, insurers must now check their security properly. Every contract must include audit rights and a clause requiring the vendor to report incidents. One of the most forward-looking additions is early preparation for a post-quantum world. Insurers must keep a clear list of their cryptographic assets. In simple terms, this is a map of where and how encryption is used across their systems. It helps them get ready once stronger encryption standards become necessary. Quantum computers capable of breaking today's encryption are still some years away, by most estimates. Mapping out those cryptographic assets now is a lot cheaper than scrambling to do it after the threat has already landed.
Conclusion
Where does all this leave things? Cybersecurity in Indian insurance isn't a server-room problem anymore — it sits squarely in the boardroom now. Directors now own this risk, not just Information Technology (IT) managers tucked away in a basement office. Policyholders benefit too, since their data now sits behind stronger locks, watched more closely and reported on far more often than before. Insurers who treat this as a paperwork exercise will struggle to keep up. Those who actually build these habits into daily operations will likely spend less time firefighting breaches five years from now, and more time competing on service and price instead.
References
3. Medianama, 'IRDAI Updates Cybersecurity Rules, Mandates DPDP Compliance', April 2026.
4. DSCI, brief on IRDAI's Information and Cyber Security Guidelines, 2026, April 2026.
7. Deloitte India, 'IRDAI Tightens Cyber Net: Wake-up Call for Insurers'.
