MAM
Rediffusion – Y&R appoints Parag Shahane as creative head – art
MUMBAI: Rediffusion – Y&R has further strengthened its creative team in Mumbai by hiring Parag Shahane as creative head – art department.
Shahane will report to Rediffusion Y&R national creative director N Padmakumar.
Shahane has previously worked with Mudra Communications, Lowe, FCB Ulka, Percept and Forefront. He also had an international stint with JWT Colombo for a span of three years.
Rediffusion – Y&R VP Neville Medhora said, “Parag brings a lot of energy and passion in to our Mumbai team. His cross-category experience will surely add a lot of value to our clients’ brands. I am confident that Parag will continue to carve out some great work and add value to our clients.”
Shahane started his career with Forefront Advertising in Mumbai and later moved to FCB Ulka. After a two-stint at FCB Ulka, Shahane joined Lowe, from where he moved to Sri Lanka to join JWT Colombo.
Shahane returned to India three years later and joined Percept H. After working for close to three years at the agency, he moved Mudra in August 2007 and worked there for over three years.
Shahane stated, “The scope of work that most of Rediff’s brands have to offer is remarkable. They have built some great iconic brands and continue to partner them in their journey. I am glad to be a part of a very positive and visionary creative team headed by Paddy. I am looking forward to this new phase in my career and am optimistic that it will indeed be fruitful.”
In a career spanning more than 15 years, Shahane has handled various brands such as Union Bank, MTDC, Pepsi, Sunsilk, Unilever Corp, Idea, Red Cross, Novartis, Mahindra Two Wheelers, BNP Paribas Mutual funds, HCC, Inorbit Mall, Filmy, Gini & Jony and Mother‘s Recipe.
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.
