P K Kunhalikutty, Minister for IT, Startup and Industries receiving the document for the establishment of the Bio-AI under Kerala Startup Mission Digital Hub, Kochi, from KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram. Also seen are Seeram Sambasiva Rao, Special Secretary, Department of Electronics & IT, Govt. of Kerala, and Sandip Kumar, CEO of Technopark.
The Kerala government, in collaboration with the India AI Mission and the India Business Division (IBD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has announced the establishment of two Artificial Intelligence Centres of Excellence (AI-CoEs) in the State.The first centre, dedicated to Bio-AI, will be set up by Kerala Startup Mission at the Digital Hub in Kochi, while the second general-purpose AI-CoE will function under Digital University Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram. Both projects have received administrative approval under the Startup Financing Pillar of the India AI Mission with a total allocation of ₹20 crore each.State IT and Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty said the twin centres would help create a comprehensive AI ecosystem in Kerala by combining advanced research with industry-oriented applications.The Bio-AI Centre, themed “Nature Meets Compute,” aims to integrate Kerala’s biodiversity, traditional Ayurvedic knowledge and genomics research with AI technologies. The initiative will be powered by the ‘Tejaswi’ supercomputer at Cochin University of Science and Technology and the Kerala Genome Data Centre.The project will be implemented with a ₹20 crore investment spread over four years under a 40:40:20 funding model involving MeitY, the State government and an industry consortium consisting of Synthite Industries, Plant Lipids, Mane Kancor and Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala.The Bio-AI CoE is expected to incubate 48 deep-tech startups through four annual cohorts, create 600 high-value jobs, and train 1,200 professionals in bioinformatics. It also aims to develop 20 proprietary intellectual property assets in areas such as drug discovery, agri-tech and genomics, besides deploying AI tools for more than 40,000 spice farmers with a target of increasing their income by 20 per cent.The AI-CoE at Digital University Kerala will operate from a dedicated 10,000 sq. ft. facility in Thiruvananthapuram. The centre will focus on applied AI research, startup incubation, mentorship programmes, hackathons, workshops, accelerator support, industry collaboration, and commercialisation of AI-driven solutions for various sectors.Digital University Kerala was the first university in India to be empanelled by CERT-In as a recognised Information Security Auditing agency. Its Centre for Digital Innovation and Product Development has also secured CMMI Development Maturity Level 3 certification, reflecting international standards in quality and process management.Published on May 21, 2026
