Zscaler and Airtel launch AI and Cyber Threat Research Center India

Zscaler and Bharti Airtel have announced the launch of the AI and Cyber Threat Research Center India, a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on strengthening national cyber resilience and accelerating trusted AI adoption across the country’s expanding digital ecosystem.

The centre is designed to support critical sectors such as telecommunications, banking and energy, along with digital users. It aims to address the growing cyber risks associated with India’s large-scale digital transformation.

Addressing population-scale digital expansion

India’s digital transformation is unfolding at population scale. Systems across sectors are expanding rapidly, increasing the national attack surface. At the same time, cyber threats are evolving quickly, with nation-state and financially motivated actors using AI to identify and exploit vulnerabilities within minutes.

Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, has observed millions of infiltration attempts each month. These include:

• Nation-state cyber espionage campaigns using regional geopolitical themes to target Indian entities.

• 1.2 million intrusion attempts originating from 20,000 sources aimed at 58 Indian digital entities across private and public sectors.

• A rise in zero-day exploit attempts targeting multiple industries.

The company states that traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer sufficient in this environment. Disruptions to essential services could affect national economic stability, making architectural shifts towards secure-by-design systems necessary.

Four strategic pillars

The AI and Cyber Threat Research Center India will operate around four core objectives:

Protect: Deliver real-time and actionable intelligence to strengthen national cyber resilience and digital-first enterprises.

Remediate: Work directly with government agencies to neutralise and prevent cyber-attacks.

Facilitate: Promote adoption of modern security frameworks, particularly AI-driven defence systems and Zero Trust architecture.

Build: Develop cybersecurity talent through specialised AI and Zero Trust certifications to address the national skills gap.

The centre is positioned as a collaborative platform involving private sector participants, public institutions, academia and government stakeholders.

Combined global intelligence and local reach

As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine global threat intelligence with local operational visibility.

Zscaler will deploy a specialised India-focused threat research team. The team will leverage the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions, to extract threat intelligence for securing public and private sector entities.

Airtel will contribute visibility into IoT and mobile network traffic. The collaboration is expected to support faster detection of suspicious activity and coordinated response with ecosystem stakeholders.

Additional members from critical public and private sectors are expected to join the initiative over time.

Leadership perspectives

Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman, Bharti Airtel, said the partnership extends the company’s commitment to safeguarding customers and the country’s digital infrastructure. He noted that the collaboration will combine AI capabilities and scale to address challenges specific to the Indian market and strengthen resilience.

Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman and Founder, Zscaler, stated that securing digital systems built at population scale requires a modern Zero Trust architecture rather than legacy firewalls and VPN-based models. He added that combining intelligence from over 500 billion daily transactions with local expertise would help prepare defenders against evolving threats.

Expanding national cyber collaboration

The AI and Cyber Threat Research Center India represents an expansion of Zscaler’s existing research presence in the country into a broader national collaboration platform.

With increasing AI-enabled threats and expanding digital infrastructure, the initiative seeks to align research, intelligence sharing and workforce development under a coordinated framework. The focus remains on strengthening cyber resilience across sectors critical to economic and national security.