Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 7 (Reporter) Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal presented the State Budget for the year 2025-26 at the State Legislative Assembly here on Friday. The CPI(M)-led Left Government aims to position Kerala as a startup hub in India, the Minister said in his budget speech. The budget provides importance to startups, entrepreneurship, MSMEs, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and social security pension schemes. The budget, which earmarked Rs 517.64 crore for the IT sector, proposes to develop Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and promote fintech enterprises. An amount of Rs 10 crore is earmarked for the development of Fintech sector and an additional Rs 10 crore has been allotted to the fund-of-funds scheme of KSUM. An amount of Rs one crore has been earmarked for conducting Agentic Hackathon to develop AI-driven solutions. The Freedom Square project of KSUM has been given Rs two crore and the proposed Emerging Technology Hub project of KSUM at Technocity has got Rs 5 crore. Rs 90.52 crore has been earmarked in the budget for the various activities of KSUM under Young Entrepreneurship Programme across the state. The Minister said Rs 82 crore has been provided to 7,079 startups so far, which created 540 direct and 850 indirect jobs. Claiming that Kerala spends Rs 11,000 crore annually for various Social Security Pensions, he said the Government has decided to retain the monthly pension at Rs 1,600. All the pending monthly pension arrears will be cleared in 2025-26, he added. Stating that the KIIFB will not take up non-revenue projects in future, he said there will be a tripartite agreement between KIIFB, KINFRA and Kollam Corporation for the development of the Kollam City Park. Claiming that a total of Rs 11,787.80 was allocated to the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) after the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Government came into power in 2016, he said the budget provides Rs 107 crore for fleet modernisation by replacing old buses with new BS-VI diesel models. Rs 38.70 crore has been allotted for infrastructure upgrades and workshop modernisation, he said. The Minister said the establishment of new IT parks in Kannur, Kollam, and Kottarakkara is expected to generate significant employment opportunities. "Rs 212 crore has been allocated for a permanent digital science park. The creation of science parks in partnership with universities and business institutions will invigorate the knowledge economy," he said. The budget also allocated Rs 100 crore to the KFON project aiming to enhance basic infrastructure facilities...////...