As 2007 comes to an end, India Inc. rated the performance of the Congress-led UPA government “more than satisfying” in the last three and half years, particularly under compulsion of coalition politics, both on internal and external front.

The India Inc gave 7 marks to the government out of 10 and feels the government is pursuing “investment-friendly” policies to a “fair” extent.

This assessment is based on a random opinion poll conducted by ASSOCHAM. Nearly 400 CEOs and MDs of large, medium and small size industries participated in the poll. Around 70 per cent of respondents feel UPA government’s performance is good in terms of keeping average GDP growth to around 8.3 per cent.

Overwhelming sections of CEOs feel inflation remains a prime concern for the government in the past three and half years, which despite its best effort stayed at more or less at 6 per cent.

As many as 35 per cent of the CEOs and MDs have rated the government’s performance just average, arguing that neither employment increased substantially nor reforms in labour market were introduced and therefore, the growth rate cannot be termed as “inclusive”.

On the other hand, 85 per cent of CEOs feel that Manmohan Singh did everything “humanly possible on almost all counts and particularly in maintaining an excellent foreign policy with equally balanced approach towards economies of scale and those of developing countries”.