MAM
Shadowfax appoints Sumit Pilankar as VP of engineering & technology
Mumbai: Homegrown crowdsourced logistics platform Shadowfax Technologies on Friday announced the latest addition to its senior leadership team. To further strengthen the technology vertical and make a strategic move towards the larger business goals at Shadowfax, the company has appointed Sumit Pilankar as the vice president – engineering and technology.
With over 17 years of rich experience in the technology industry, Pilankar will be taking charge of spearheading the engineering and technology unit and will be reporting to Shadowfax Technologies, co-founder & CTO, Vaibhav Khandelwal.
His role will involve creating innovative tech-enabled solutions to power last-mile delivery services. Prior to joining Shadowfax, Pilankar had led technology intervention in various organisations like Flipkart, Holiday IQ, WordPoint Technologies, and Kudos Infomedia.
Sharing the vision for the company’s growth aligned to the latest developments, Khandelwal said, “We are a growing and dynamic company. Our core has always been delivering value to our customers and helping them create an enhanced experience for the end customers. At Shadowfax, we leverage technology to build best-in-class logistics solutions that are efficient, cost-effective, and agile to service a vast range of businesses thereby adding value to the lives of our partners and patrons. We are excited to welcome Sumit on board and continue to ameliorate this journey towards excellence.”
Expressing his thoughts on his new stint, Pilankar said, “I have been closely following the developments in the Indian logistics and supply chain industry and believe that technology has the potential to be the game-changer. The industry has been transforming from manual to data-driven decision making and this when coupled with the latest technologies will enhance the experiences for all 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.
