Jammu, February 20, 2026 \u2013 Zscaler, Inc., the leader in cloud security, in partnership with Bharti Airtel (\u201cAirtel\u201d), one of India\u2019s largest telecommunication service providers, today announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center \u2013 India. This multi-stakeholder digital initiative is dedicated to advancing national cyber resilience, protecting sectors, industries and assets that are essential to India\u2019s economic and national security, such as telecommunications, banking, and energy, as well as digital users, and accelerating trusted AI adoption across India\u2019s rapidly expanding digital ecosystem. <\/p>\n
India has long been a key hub for Zscaler\u2019s technology innovation and cyber research, with a significant share of Zscaler\u2019s research talent based in the country. The research center will serve as an expansion of Zscaler\u2019s operations into a national platform for collaboration between the private sector, public sector, academia and the government. The center is designed “In India, For India,” with the goal of strengthening the nation’s cyber defenses and building a future-ready talent pipeline to support India’s progress toward Viksit Bharat and a peaceful, secure, and digitally self-reliant future.<\/p>\n
India is in the midst of a generational digital transformation, building systems not at enterprise scale, but at population scale across critical sectors \u2013 dramatically expanding the national attack surface. At the same time, the threat landscape is evolving at machine speed, with nation state and financially-motivated attackers increasingly leveraging AI to probe, target, and weaponize vulnerabilities in minutes. Zscaler\u2019s research arm, ThreatLabz India, has observed millions of infiltration attempts each month, including notable campaigns such as:<\/p>\n
\u25cf\tNation-state cyber espionage activity using the theme of regional geopolitical tensions, which attempted to target multiple Indian entities;<\/p>\n
\u25cf\tA surge in attempts to infiltrate India’s private and public sectors, with 1.2 million intrusion attempts originating from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities; and <\/p>\n
\u25cf\tAn increase in zero-day exploit attempts aimed at multiple industries in India. <\/p>\n
As threats grow in sophistication, traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer adequate, and disruptions to essential services can threaten national economic stability \u2013 making secure-by-design foundations and a modern architectural shift imperative to protect national digital systems in an increasingly borderless, AI-enabled environment.<\/p>\n
The objectives of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center \u2013 India are anchored in four strategic pillars: <\/p>\n
1.\tProtect: Deliver real-time, actionable intelligence to strengthen India\u2019s national cyber resilience and digital-first businesses.<\/p>\n
2.\tRemediate: Partner directly with government agencies to neutralize and prevent cyber-attacks.<\/p>\n
3.\tFacilitate: Drive the adoption of modern security frameworks, specifically focusing on AI-driven defenses and Zero Trust architecture.<\/p>\n
4.\tBuild: Strengthen the cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialized AI and Zero Trust certifications to bridge the national skills gap. <\/p>\n
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine the former\u2019s global intelligence with the latter\u2019s local operational reach to create a stronger, faster research-to-response loop for India. Zscaler will deploy a specialized threat research team focused on India. This team will leverage the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange\u2122 platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions, to extract threat intelligence to secure India’s public and private sectors. Airtel will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, collaborating with Zscaler to monitor networks and develop new solutions, enabling faster identification of suspicious activity and more effective coordination with ecosystem stakeholders. Looking ahead, additional members from India\u2019s critical public and private sectors will be invited to join the center to expand collaboration and strengthen cyber resilience across India.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Airtel, our commitment has been to safeguard our customers and the nation\u2019s 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\u2019s expanding digital ecosystem,\u201d said Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman, Bharti Airtel. \u201cWe will focus on addressing challenges unique to our market to build a safer, more resilient digital India where every citizen and enterprise can connect and thrive with confidence. Our research-backed preventive mechanism will also encourage peaceful and secure engagements on digital platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia 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,\u201d said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Zscaler. \u201cWith the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center \u2013 India, we will bring the full power of the world\u2019s largest security cloud to protect the nation\u2019s public and private sectors. By combining actionable intelligence from over 500 billion daily transactions with local expertise, we aren’t just building readiness; we are empowering a new generation of defenders to stay ahead of the adversary.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jammu, February 20, 2026 \u2013 Zscaler, Inc., the leader in cloud security, in partnership with Bharti Airtel (\u201cAirtel\u201d), one of India\u2019s largest telecommunication service providers, today announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center \u2013 India. This multi-stakeholder digital initiative is dedicated to advancing national cyber resilience, protecting sectors, industries and assets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jammu","8":"category-kashmir"},"yoast_head":"\n