NEW DELHI, India, Feb. 20, 2026 – Zscaler, Inc., the leader in cloud security, in partnership with Bharti Airtel (Airtel), one of India’s largest telecommunication service providers, today announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India. This multi-stakeholder digital initiative is dedicated to advancing national cyber resilience, protecting sectors, industries and assets that are essential to India’s economic and national security, such as telecommunications, banking, and energy, as well as digital users, and accelerating trusted AI adoption across India’s rapidly expanding digital ecosystem.
India has long been a key hub for Zscaler’s technology innovation and cyber research, with a significant share of Zscaler’s research talent based in the country. The research center will serve as an expansion of Zscaler’s 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.
India is in the midst of a generational digital transformation, building systems not at enterprise scale, but at population scale across critical sectors – 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’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, has observed millions of infiltration attempts each month, including notable campaigns such as:
As threats grow in sophistication, traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer adequate, and disruptions to essential services can threaten national economic stability – making secure-by-design foundations and a modern architectural shift imperative to protect national digital systems in an increasingly borderless, AI-enabled environment.
The objectives of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India are anchored in four strategic pillars:
As founding members, 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 a 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. 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’s critical public and private sectors will be invited to join the center to expand collaboration and strengthen cyber resilience across India.
“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.”
“India 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,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Zscaler. “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."
For more information, visit the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center and download the eBook, Securing Digital India Against Cyber Threats, for deeper insights and practical guidance on India’s evolving cyber threat landscape.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on our management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. These forward-looking statements include the expected establishment and benefits of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. A significant number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including those factors related to our ability to successfully establish and operationalize the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center – India. Additional risks and uncertainties are set forth in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on November 25, 2025, which is available on our website at ir.zscaler.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statements in this release are based on the limited information currently available to Zscaler as of the date hereof, which is subject to change, and Zscaler will not necessarily update the information, even if new information becomes available in the future.
About Bharti Airtel
Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 600 million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa. The company also has its presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through its associate entities. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high-speed 4G/5G mobile, Wi-Fi (FTTH+ FWA) that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, video streaming services, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, and cloud-based communication. Airtel’s digital arm – Xtelify, empowers telcos globally to leverage the power of AI, data and technology to accelerate their digital transformation and drive growth. Xtelify also offers Airtel Cloud in India enabling enterprises with a sovereign, telco-grade cloud platform that guarantees secure migration, effortless scaling, lower costs and no vendor lock-ins. Within its diversified portfolio, Airtel also offers passive infrastructure services through its subsidiary Indus Tower Ltd. For more details visit www.airtel.com
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