MAM
ad2c makes two senior level appointments
MUMBAI: ad2c, provider of advanced mobile marketing and innovative solutions for the Indian market, has appointed Harish Nair as chief strategy officer and Pradeep AJ as the business director.
ad2c CEO Madan Sanglikar said, “We are very excited about welcoming Harish and Pradeep on board. Their vast experience and expertise in digital arena will help us in delivering superior innovations and solutions. They will play a key role in strengthening and anchoring the digital proficiency of ad2c in India. ”
As the chief strategy officer, Nair’s mandate is to help brands improve the quality of their conversations with their audience with mobile at the core of the communications strategy.
Nair said, “My effort will be to utilise my skills and knowledge in forging a strong and formidable foundation for the digital squad at ad2c to guarantee a significant improvement in the way brands interact with their audience. ”
Pradeep’s mandate is to grow the digital business in South India while positioning mobile as the core offering for advertisers.
Pradeep added, “I firmly believe that mobile marketing is moving towards the pinnacle, and as a part of ad2c team I will ensure that we are the leaders riding this digital nimbus.”
Nair comes in with a decade of experience in the digital arena. His last stint was with Mindshare as partner – invention. He started his digital journey with BOTW, a self-styled start-up.
Pradeep started his career with digital B2B startups in 2002, while working at Jobstreet.com and Dice.com, managing sales and marketing for their India operations. In 2008, he joined Mindshare to manage the digital media practice for brands from various sectors like Beverages, Fashion and IT.
Brands
Zscaler, Airtel launch India AI Cyber Research Centre
New hub to boost cyber resilience and trusted AI use
NEW DELHI: As India’s digital engine roars ahead, so do the risks riding shotgun. In response, Zscaler, Inc. and Bharti Airtel have joined hands to launch the AI and Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a national initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s cyber defences and accelerating responsible AI adoption.
The centre is designed as a multi stakeholder platform that brings together industry, government and academia. Its mission is clear: protect critical sectors such as telecom, banking and energy, shield everyday digital users, and future proof India’s fast expanding online ecosystem.
India has long been a major innovation hub for Zscaler, with a substantial portion of its cyber research talent based here. With this new centre, that footprint evolves into a national collaboration engine. The idea is simple but ambitious, build in India, for India, and help power the country’s journey towards a secure and digitally self reliant future.
The timing is telling. India is building digital systems at population scale, not just enterprise scale. That scale has widened the attack surface dramatically. At the same time, cyber criminals and nation state actors are deploying AI to scan, probe and exploit vulnerabilities in minutes.
Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, reports millions of infiltration attempts every month. These include espionage campaigns linked to regional geopolitical tensions, 1.2 million intrusion attempts from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities, and a rise in zero day exploit attempts across multiple industries.
In such an environment, perimeter based security models are struggling to keep pace. The new centre aims to push a shift towards secure by design systems and Zero Trust architecture.
Its strategy rests on four pillars: protect through real time intelligence, remediate by working directly with government agencies, facilitate adoption of AI driven security and Zero Trust frameworks, and build a stronger cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialised certifications.
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine global threat intelligence with local network visibility. Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India focused research team and draw insights from its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions worldwide. Airtel, meanwhile, will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, helping detect suspicious activity faster and coordinate response across the ecosystem.
Bharti Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal, said the partnership extends Airtel’s commitment to safeguarding customers and the nation’s digital fabric. He added that the collaboration would address challenges unique to the Indian market and encourage secure and confident digital engagement.
Zscaler chief executive, chairman and founder Jay Chaudhry, said India’s digital ambition cannot be secured with legacy firewalls and VPNs. He noted that a modern Zero Trust architecture is essential for a hyper connected world and that the new centre would harness the scale of Zscaler’s global security cloud while empowering a new generation of Indian cyber defenders.
Additional members from critical public and private sectors are expected to join the initiative in the coming months, expanding its scope and deepening collaboration.
In a world where threats travel at machine speed, India’s answer is to think faster, collaborate wider and build smarter.
