Bharti Airtel and Zscaler join hands to launch the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center- India

Yesterday, Bharti Airtel announced that it has partnered with Zscaler to launch the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center- India. 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.

Airtel and zscaler have joined forces to launch the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center — India

— Bharti Airtel (@airtelnews) February 20, 2026

India is currently in the midst of a generational digital transformation, which also dramatically expands the national attack surface. It is revealed that Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, has observed millions of infiltration attempts each month, including notable campaigns such as:

• Nation-state cyber espionage activity using the theme of regional geopolitical tensions, which attempted to target multiple Indian entities.
• A 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
• An increase in zero-day exploit attempts aimed at multiple industries in India

AI & Cyber Threat Research Center- India

The objectives of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center- India are anchored in four strategic pillars:

• Protect: Deliver real-time actionable intelligence to strengthen India’s national cyber resilience and digital-first boundaries.
• Remediate: Partner directly with government agencies to neutralize and prevent cyber attacks.
• Facilitate: Drive the adoption of modern security frameworks, specifically focusing on AI-driven defenses and Zero Trust architecture.
• Build: Strengthen the cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialized AI and Zero Trust certifications to bridge the national skills gap.

Zscaler and Airtel will combine the former’s global intelligence with the latter’s local operational reach to create a stronger, faster research-to-response loop for India.

Zscaler will deploy specialized threat research team focused on India. This team will leverage the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions, to extract threat intelligence to secure India’s public and private sectors. Meanwhile, Airtel will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, collaborating with Zscaler to monitor networks and develop into solutions enabling faster identification of suspicious activity and more effective coordination with ecosystem stakeholders.

Comments from companies on this launch

“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. “We 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.”

Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Zscaler said. “With the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India, we will bring the full power of the world’s largest security cloud to protect the nation’s 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.”

It also revealed that in future, additional members from India’s critical public and private sectors will be invited to join the center to expand collaboration and strengthen cyber resilience across India.