MAM
Sapientnitro India appoints Amod Dani as creative head for north
MUMBAI: SapientNitroSM has strengthened its creative offering by bringing on board Amod Dani, previously Vice President Creative at AffinityX, as Creative Head for the Northern region.
With over a decade of experience in advertising, Amod has worked with brands like Škoda, Citibank, McDonald’s, Cadbury, Asian Paints, Procter & Gamble, Vista Print (Global) and won awards at festivals like Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, The One show, The Clio awards, Spikes Asia, AdFest Asia, Goafest and The Award Australia. At AffinityX, Amod was responsible for spearheading and driving the creative vision for a staff of 1,900 highly skilled creatives to provide white-label creative and marketing services for companies that serve small and medium businesses (SMBs). Prior to AffinityX, Amod played a key creative leadership role at Publicis, Contract and Leo Burnett.
Reporting into SapientNitro India’s Chief Creative Officer K.V. Sridhar (Pops), Amod will be responsible for driving creative excellence across all clients in the northern region of India, as well as lead and shape the team to deliver work that breaks boundaries at the intersection of technology and story.
Sapient India CCO KV Sridhar said, “As we continue to build our capabilities and momentum in delivering a unique blend of storytelling with the power of technology, we are delighted to welcome a creative talent of Amod’s caliber to our team. He will not only add more muscle to our creative craft with his industry insights but also bring diverse global experience and leadership skills. Together with the entire SapientNitro creative team, Amod will strongly contribute to help shape our creative excellence and deliver dynamic business results for our clients.”
On his new appointment Dani commented, “I am absolutely thrilled to join SapientNitro and look forward to be a part of the legacy of creative excellence that is native to the organization. I believe that innovative use of technology and an integrated approach towards problem solving is the way ahead. SapientNitro is leading the change for brand-customer engagement globally and their vision is incredibly relevant in today’s hyper-connected world.”
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.
