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Bharti Airtel launches AI & Cyber Threat Research Centre in India with ZscalerThe centre is aimed at protecting sectors considered critical to India’s economic and national security, including telecommunications, banking and energy, as well as digital users.By Navneet Singh  February 20, 2026, 7:03:48 PM IST (Published)2 Min ReadBharti Airtel has informed exchanges about the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Centre – India, in partnership with cloud security firm Zscaler.

The centre aims to protect sectors critical to India’s economic and national security, including telecommunications, banking and energy, as well as digital users.

It will expand Zscaler’s operations in India into a national platform for collaboration among the private sector, public sector, academia and the government.

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

The centre’s objectives are structured around four pillars: delivering actionable intelligence to strengthen cyber resilience; partnering with government agencies to prevent and neutralise cyberattacks; promoting adoption of AI-driven defences and Zero Trust architecture; and strengthening the cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialised certifications.

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Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice Chairman of Bharti Airtel, said, “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.”

As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine threat intelligence capabilities and network visibility. Zscaler will deploy a specialised research team focused on India and leverage its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions, to generate threat intelligence. Airtel will contribute visibility into IoT and mobile traffic to support monitoring and response efforts.

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The companies said additional members from India’s critical public and private sectors may be invited to join the centre to broaden collaboration on cyber resilience.

Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd closed at ₹1,977.80 on February 20, down ₹10.80, or 0.54%, for the day.Continue ReadingTagsArtificial IntelligenceBharti AirtelCyber attack