MAM
Ad platform POKKT appoints Wahab as VP
MUMBAI: POKKT, India’s & SEA’s leading smartphone advertising platform for mobile games, has announced the appointment of Abdul Wahab as Vice President, Global Delivery Head. Abdul will be responsible for timely delivery of campaigns, optimizing cost, maintain KPIs towards the goals targeted, strengthening and exploring new partnerships with mobile game publishers. Abdul will report to POKKT’s COO & CO-founder, Vaibhav Odhekar.
“Abdul has vast experience in digital advertising operations, delivery and optimization will help the company scale newer heights. He will surely help us reinforce our leadership team and will strengthen POKKT’s position in the mobile video advertising space,” said Vaibhav Odhekar, COO & CO-founder of POKKT.
Abdul said, “My overall endeavour will be to establish POKKT as a global leader in mobile video ad space. Having worked in a start-up environment and with tech-based companies, I will also be looking at establishing strong relationships with our clients and partners, both existing and new.”
Abdul brings 13+ years of relevant industry experience to his new role having previously served as Senior Director-Supply and Delivery at C1 Exchange. He was handling the entire business operations from onboarding supply and programmatic delivery, for the US and APMEA region. He has also worked in leadership roles with several top companies like Vizury, Vserv, Ibibo and Zenith Optimedia. He has a complete understanding of the online advertising marketplace and has been a significant contributor to both business and technical aspects of ad Serving. His key accomplishments include delivering scale and value to the stakeholders.
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.
