kochi india got its largest startup ecosystem sunday when kerala chief minister pinarayi vijayan inaugurated here a 18lakhsquarefeet facility housing incubation setups across a string of segments in modern technologythe integrated startup complex under the kerala startup mission ksum includes the ultra modern facilities of maker village that promotes hardware startups the bionest that promotes medical technologies brinc which is the countrys first international accelerator for hardware startups bric which aids developing solutions for cancer diagnosis and care and a centre of excellence set up by industry majors such as unityoverall the kerala government is working for the state to have a total area of 23 crore sq ft of it space up from 13 crore sq ft last year the opening of the new complex at the technology innovation zone tiz is a major step towards achieving the objective vijayan said in his speech at kinfra hi tech park kalamasserywe are also planning to give direct jobs to 25 lakh in it he said adding that the government was working to ensure that information technology fosters social developmentafter the completion of three more projects kerala will have startup and incubation space of 5 lakh sq ft which will be the largest of this type in the worldno less than 30 applications for patent has gone from startups with the 135acre tiz the cm noted lauding it as a sign of the highquality work in the zone simultaneously kerala was sensing increasing optimism in boosting software export from the statem sivasankar secretary it kerala pointed out that the entire space at the tiz facility has been sold outthis has never happened in our country where it usually takes a couple of years for an incubator to get the whole area occupied he said the first three floors of the new complex have been furnished while the rest of the floors have already got allotted to various startupsthe campus has another incubator complex coming up and it will be opened early next year sivasankar saidbesides the maker villager with its 30odd startups the facility has nascent firms working in fields such as biotechnology computeraided design augmentedvirtual reality and advanced communicationkalamassery mla ebrahim kunju in his presidential address said kerala has been proving to be a superpower in south india in the field of it and incubation we expect more help from the government in its related endeavours he addedernakulam mp prof k v thomas launched bionest which is a startup the ksum has established in association with rajiv gandhi centre for biotechnology with financial aid from birac under the union governments department of bio techit has 20 companies involved in deep research in biotechnology and allied fieldsthe bric which was inaugurated by kerala health minister k k shailaja will chiefly work in fighting cancer the state has 50000 additions to its cancer patients every year the minister noted adding that the bric will work in accordance with a cancer strategic action plan and funds totalling rs 350 croreofficials pointed out that