Some of the Union Budget proposals such as the announcement of Rs. 188 crore for disaster management in Puducherry provide some cheer for a city that has a cyclone-prone coastline.
The city had been ravaged by the tsunami of 2004 and the fury of Cyclone Thane in 2011.
“We were close to getting Rs. 100 crore on this count last year but the fund failed to come through due to some glitch. So it is good that now the amount has been scaled up,” a top Government official said.
Tax sops pertaining to IT hardware sector are also expected to benefit the city, which contributes about 26 per cent of branded hardware manufacturing in the country.
“If some leading firms were about to pack up it was more because of unattractive tax imposts than the industrial environment here,” a high ranking Government official said.
The MSME sector too can look up to better times, industry representatives said.