Zscaler and Bharti Airtel Launch AI and Cyber Threat Research Centre to Secure Digital India
The centre will expand Zscaler’s existing research footprint into a national collaboration platform bringing together the private sector, public institutions, academia, and government.
Zscaler, Inc., in partnership with Bharti Airtel, has announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Centre – India, a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at strengthening national cyber resilience and accelerating trusted AI adoption across the country’s fast-growing digital ecosystem.
“India is building digital systems at an unmatched population scale. You cannot secure this level of ambition with legacy firewalls and VPNs that were never designed for a hyper-connected world. It demands a modern Zero Trust architecture that is secure-by-design,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Zscaler.
Designed “In India, For India,” the centre will expand Zscaler’s existing research footprint into a national collaboration platform bringing together the private sector, public institutions, academia, and government.
The initiative seeks to safeguard critical sectors including telecommunications, banking, energy, and digital public infrastructure as India scales systems at population level.
India’s expanding digital infrastructure has also widened the national attack surface. Zscaler’s ThreatLabz India reports millions of infiltration attempts each month, including nation-state cyber espionage campaigns themed around regional geopolitical tensions, 1.2 million intrusion attempts from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian entities, and rising zero-day exploit activity across industries.
The centre will operate on four pillars — Protect, Remediate, Facilitate, and Build — delivering real-time intelligence, partnering with government agencies, promoting AI-driven Zero Trust frameworks, and strengthening cybersecurity talent through certifications.
“At Airtel, our commitment has been to safeguard our customers and the nation’s digital fabric. This partnership with Zscaler marks a significant extension of this commitment that will combine the power of our AI capabilities and deep scale for cybersecurity research to protect the country’s expanding digital ecosystem,” said Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman, Bharti Airtel.
