The dominant feeling is the reform and development will continue no matter which party comes to power.

India Inc sees business outside Cyberabad
Will a hung Parliament hit reforms?

However, leading corporate houses feel that the pace could suffer if there is no stable coalition at the Centre as it would be subject to far too many contradictory pulls and pressures.

"We believe that the IT industry has matured and is fairly self-reliant today. Any pro-development government will be able to sustain the economic progress this region has seen" said Nilekani.

There is a consensus among the corporate chiefs that the pace of reforms will continue even if the NDA fails to make it. "Every things depend on the formation of the government. A change is welcome provided the new government is stable," said a senior banker.

"The economic agenda will remain more or less the same irrespective of who comes to power but a good majority will give people the power to push through what they want. The presence of many marginal players in the ruling party is not a very good sign as each has a different agenda," said Arun Nanda, executive director of Mahindra & Mahindra striking a note of caution.

A Hinduja executive made the same point when he said, "If there is no clear majority for any of the different combinations the government at the centre might not be able to take any hard decisive action on economic issues. It will be up to the Prime Minister's skill and ability to lead and manage coalition politics in the changed context and at the same time continue the economic reforms which are half finished."

A senior executive with a diversified conglomerate said that the results of Andhra Pradesh will be largely offset by that in Karnataka where the NDA is expected to ride to power.

"In such a situation reforms will go-ahead as the NDA will come back to power," the senior executive said. Amit Tandon, managing director of Fitch Ratings, pointed out that even in the past, reforms had continued despite the presence of coalition governments. Meantime, the industry in Andhra Pradesh is cautious in reacting to the Congress win. The industry has restricted itself to merely hoping that the new government will continue the policies of the TDP government. It is also maintaining a studied silence on the demand of the TRS for a separate Telangana state.

The industry is broadly in consensus with the main agenda of the Congress to focus on revitalising the agrarian economy. The IT and ITES sectors, which were in the limelight during TDP rule, are also not perturbed over change of guard.

S V Ramachandran, the regional director of Nasscom, said, "Congress has realised that IT is a very important sector today. And they have even promised to set up at least six institutes to train students in IT and IT-enabled areas."

Venkata Rao Mallineni, the president and CEO of SoftPro Systems, said: "I personally think that Congress would continue what the previous government has done and only take it forward."

Ramesh Datla, the president of CII's Andhra Pradesh cell, said that the greater thrust on agriculture, infrastructure, exports, healthcare, tourism and knowledge-based industry was in line with the CII agenda.

A B Bhushan, the regional president of Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, observed that, "There would be no major policy changes."