Zscaler and Airtel launch AI and cyber threat research center to strengthen India’s digital resilience
As India builds digital infrastructure at population scale, cybersecurity has moved from being an IT concern to a national priority. In a strategic move to bolster the country’s cyber defenses, Zscaler and Bharti Airtel have launched the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a collaborative initiative focused on strengthening cyber resilience and enabling trusted AI adoption.
India’s digital expansion across telecommunications, banking, energy, and public infrastructure has significantly widened the national attack surface. At the same time, cyber threats are evolving at machine speed. Zscaler’s ThreatLabz India has observed millions of infiltration attempts every month, including nation-state espionage campaigns, over a million intrusion attempts from thousands of sources targeting Indian entities, and a sharp rise in zero-day exploits.
In this environment, traditional perimeter-based security models are increasingly inadequate. The new center is designed to help India transition toward secure-by-design digital systems built on Zero Trust principles.
The initiative rests on four strategic pillars: protecting critical sectors through real-time threat intelligence, working with government agencies to remediate and prevent attacks, accelerating adoption of AI-driven security frameworks, and building a future-ready cybersecurity talent pipeline. Designed “In India, For India,” the center aims to create a national collaboration platform spanning industry, government, and academia.
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel bring complementary capabilities. Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India-focused threat research team leveraging its Zero Trust Exchange™ platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions globally. Airtel will contribute deep visibility into mobile and IoT traffic across its extensive telecom network, enabling faster detection and coordinated response to emerging threats.
Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman of Bharti Airtel, said the partnership extends Airtel’s commitment to safeguarding the country’s digital ecosystem and addressing challenges unique to the Indian market. Jay Chaudhry, CEO and Founder of Zscaler, emphasized that securing systems built at India’s scale requires moving beyond legacy firewalls and VPNs toward modern Zero Trust architectures.
Beyond defense, the center also aims to enable secure AI adoption by embedding AI-driven protections into digital infrastructure. Additional public and private sector entities are expected to join the initiative, expanding collaboration across critical sectors.
As India advances toward a digitally self-reliant future, the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center signals a shift toward intelligence-led, proactive cybersecurity — ensuring that resilience is built into the architecture of the nation’s digital growth.