MAM
Baggit eyes tier 1 & 2 cities for expansion
NEW DELHI: Expanding beyond the 3000-odd pin codes that it serves today with its delivery channels, Baggit will soon be touching more than 25,000 areas with its supply chain, diving deep into the hinterland India, brand’s head of marketing Atul Rohan Garg announced during the Beauty & Lifestyle Virtual Roundtable hosted by Indiantelevision.com on Saturday.
“I was reading some statistics provided by an e-commerce platform stating that metro cities are only contributing to 40-42 per cent of our sales and the rest 60 per cent is coming from the rest of the country. So, our focus is to touch more of tier 2, tier 3, and tier 4 cities,” he elaborated.
He added that his intention is not only to drive sales but be present as many touchpoints as the brand can. “This whole mechanism has the benefit to take customer feedback, which means I have a control on ROI from service-level and not only from a brand level.”
Additionally, the brand will soon be rolling out video calling facilities for its consumers to give them digital assistance while buying Baggit products.
Garg elucidated that for brands, it is not just about pedalling through the ongoing crisis but also maintain a strong foothold in the coming 2-3 years, which are going to be really rough. That’s why his core focus remains on strengthening the sales side capabilities of the brand.
For the production side, according to him, the advantage that the brand holds is that they design and manufacture in India. Therefore, it is easier for them to keep a vigil on the operations, quickly include client feedback, and maintain a robust system in place.
Speaking about his experience of managing the brand during the lockdown, Garg noted that the two things that really worked for the brand were influencer marketing and CRM.
“Influencers were not only making lookbooks for us but also remotely shooting campaign videos, going up to our stores and showing people how safe is that and were taking us to new markets. Our CRM, which is very strong, enabled people to shop online smoothly,” he quoted.
He also shared that their fully digital brand GG performed exceptionally well during the lockdown, surprising them with the response it got as they were not expecting sales to happen during the lockdown.
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.
