A video showing late industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata being felicitated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis is being shared to claim as the former’s last public appearance before his demise on 9 October.
This video was shared by news outlets such as ANI, NDTV Profit, Zee News, and DNA India.
Is this true?: No, this claim is false.
The video predates to 19 August 2023 when Tata was felicitated with the Udyog Ratna by the Maharashtra government.
The Quint found several other instances from this year where the Tata Emeritus was spotted publicly.
What we found: We divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.
We came across the same video on the YouTube channel of the Times of India from 19 August 2023.
Another news report by the Hindu stated that Tata received the award in August 2023. It was the first ever Udyog Ratna conferred by the Maharashtra government.
Public Appearances in 2024:
We went through Tata’s Instagram page and came across two posts.
20 March - Tata posted four visuals with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and thanked him for the state’s cooperation with the Tata group instituting complex care for cancer treatment.
21 May - The industrialist also shared a post with former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. The two noted the insights of the meeting.
Similarly, NDTV also posted a video of him going to cast his vote for the Lok Sabha elections on 20 May.
Conclusion: An old video from 2023 of Ratan Tata has been shared to falsely claim as his last public appearance.
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