Srinagar, Feb 20: Zscaler, a global cloud security leader, in collaboration with Bharti Airtel, on Thursday announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a major initiative aimed at strengthening national cyber resilience and promoting trusted adoption of Artificial Intelligence across the country’s fast-expanding digital ecosystem.
The centre is envisioned as a multi-stakeholder platform that will bring together industry, government bodies, academia and research institutions to safeguard critical sectors such as telecommunications, banking, energy and other essential digital infrastructure. It also seeks to enhance the protection of millions of digital users as India undergoes rapid, population-scale digitisation.
Zscaler stated that India has long been central to its global innovation and cyber research efforts, with a substantial share of its research workforce based in the country. The new centre marks an expansion of its operations into a broader national collaboration framework, designed “In India, For India,” with a focus on strengthening cyber defences and building a skilled workforce aligned with the country’s vision of Viksit Bharat and digital self-reliance.
As India accelerates its digital transformation across critical sectors, the national attack surface has expanded significantly. At the same time, cyber threats are evolving at machine speed, with nation-state actors and financially motivated groups increasingly leveraging AI tools to identify and exploit vulnerabilities within minutes. According to Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, millions of infiltration attempts are detected each month. The organisation has observed nation-state cyber espionage campaigns exploiting regional geopolitical themes, over 1.2 million intrusion attempts originating from more than 20,000 sources targeting dozens of Indian digital entities, and a growing number of zero-day exploit attempts across industries.
Officials noted that traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer adequate in the face of increasingly sophisticated and AI-driven threats. Disruptions to essential digital services, they warned, can directly impact economic stability and national security, making a shift toward secure-by-design architecture imperative.
The AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India will focus on delivering real-time and actionable threat intelligence to strengthen the country’s cyber preparedness, while working closely with government agencies to identify, neutralise and prevent cyberattacks. It will also promote the adoption of advanced security frameworks, particularly AI-driven defence mechanisms and Zero Trust architecture, to modernise digital security systems. In addition, the centre aims to address the national cybersecurity skills gap by developing specialised certification programmes in AI and Zero Trust technologies, thereby strengthening India’s cybersecurity talent pipeline.
With this initiative, Zscaler and Airtel aim to reinforce India’s cyber defence ecosystem while enabling secure innovation and responsible AI adoption across industries.
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