Brands
Startup OYO features in LinkedIn’s Top Attractors List
MUMBAI: India’s branded network of hotels OYO has become the youngest Indian startup to be included in the LinkedIn Top Attractors list for India in 2016. Ranked at number 16 overall and 6th in the rank of home-grown Indian companies, OYO is the only hospitality company among the 25 companies featured. The list also features biggies such as Amazon, Google and Flipkart.
Speaking about the achievement, OYO CEO and founder Ritesh Agarwal, CEO said, “We are ecstatic at being recognized as a top attractor by LinkedIn. People and technology form the crux of our operations and this survey along with its methodology represents the best convergence of the two. OYO is a preferred employer on account of being an agent of transformation. In the very short time since our launch, we have driven positive impact in the hospitality sector as well as the experience of lakhs of Indian travellers. The OYO DNA is all about being innovative, agile and responsive. This recognition further validates our belief in our vision of becoming the most-loved hotel brand in the world.”
The Top Attractors list is the first ranking of its kind to be based entirely on actions of LinkedIn users. According to LinkedIn, the 25 companies featured on the list are the best in India at attracting and keeping top talent. OYO pipped eCommerce companies such as MakeMyTrip and Zomato, and veterans such as Cisco, Reliance and Accenture, that are also featured in the same list.
Globally, the list featured companies such as Apple, Facebook and Uber. LinkedIn partnered with Censuswide Research to carry out an online survey of 6,266 workers between 18 May and 23 May 2016. The countries surveyed were Australia, Brazil, France, India, UK and USA.
The list comprises companies where people most eagerly want to land jobs, and stay in them, as determined by 12 metrics that measure online actions taken by LinkedIn’s members. Among those metrics are the number of views and applications per job posting on LinkedIn and other career sites, the number of views of a company’s career page, and employee retention statistics as measured through profile updates.
In just three years since its inception, OYO says that it has managed to expand its network to include 70,000 rooms in 180 Indian cities, with 2.3 million room-nights booked in the first quarter of 2016. CB Insights has cited OYO as one of the top 50 startups most likely to next reach unicorn status.
OYO’s vision is to become the world’s most preferred and trusted hotel brand. It is backed by the world’s leading investors including the SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed India.
OYO has partnered with IRCTC, Airtel, Samsung, Lenovo, Biotique, Cleartrip, Itzcash, FreeCharge, Mobikwik, Peppertap and Grofers to deliver a seamless and standardized experience to guests.
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.
