The multi-stakeholder initiative, designed “In India, For India,” aims to safeguard critical sectors such as telecommunications, banking, and energy while supporting India’s broader digital transformation. The centre will serve as a national collaboration platform, bringing together private enterprises, public institutions, academia, and government agencies.

Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India-focused threat research team leveraging its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions to generate actionable threat intelligence. Airtel will contribute deep visibility across IoT and mobile networks to enhance monitoring, accelerate threat detection, and enable coordinated response mechanisms.

Gopal Vittal, executive vice-chairman of Bharti Airtel, said the partnership reinforces the company’s commitment to securing customers and strengthening India’s digital backbone. Jay Chaudhry, CEO and Chairman of Zscaler, emphasized the need for a secure-by-design Zero Trust architecture to protect India’s rapidly expanding digital ecosystem.

The center will progressively onboard additional partners from India’s public and private sectors to further enhance national cyber preparedness.

Bharti Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 600 million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa.

The company reported a 55.14% decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 6,630.5 crore, despite a 19.62% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 53,981.6 crore in Q3 FY26 over Q3 FY25.

Shares of Bharti Airtel rose 0.87% to Rs 1,994.95 on the BSE.