MAM
Uber Eats launches new interactive feature ‘Merchant Stories’
KOLKATA: Online food delivery app, Uber Eats on Tuesday launched a new interactive feature on its app- ‘Merchant Stories’ which allows merchant partners to connect directly with their eaters.
The new feature developed by the company’s Hyderabad based engineering team helps eaters seamlessly discover the latest offerings from their favourite restaurants, while assisting Uber merchants to display their delicacies.
Elaborating on the idea behind the launch, the company cited a consumer survey which showed people felt more comfortable making food decisions based on photos, and were more likely to place an order when they could see what their chosen food or beverage looked like. In early testing, 13 per cent of people who clicked through a restaurant’s story placed an order to that restaurant in the same session, it said on Tuesday.
This feature has so far only been rolled out in the US and Canada and reinforces the ‘Make in India for the World’ vision of India’s tech centers, it added.
Eats Engineering site lead Jaiteerth Patwari said: “We understand a picture is worth a thousand words, and that it’s much easier to order an item when you can see what it looks like. We heard feedback from partners who felt they needed to build a direct communication channel with their consumers, and our team worked to build a solution that addressed their unique needs.”
Through this innovation, merchants can now sign up for the ‘Merchant Stories’ feature to post regular updates. They can upload photos and add text to tell their customers about special deals, menu changes, new services, or seasonal promotions.
The Eats Engineering team has led several global innovations over the past year including integrating leading digital wallets in Japan and Belgium during 2020, and connecting more restaurant partners to consumers when cities were in lockdown. The team also led the tech backend for a new line of business — prescription delivery in the US.
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.
