According to Graham Atkinson, director, infrastructure and power projects, government of UK, though the problem of PSU restructuring was not as complicated as it is in India, the strategies adopted in UK can certainly prove beneficial in the Indian context.

Atkinson told The Financial Express that unless the public benefits in terms of lower prices and better service, there won't be a general acceptance of the benefits of PSU restructuring.

To ensure that, infusion of competition in the public monopoly system was a must, he said. "But before competition, you need to have transparent regulations," he added.

This, however, cannot be achieved with total state ownership of PSUs as that will be a contradiction, said Atkinson. "Ican see that India could have partial state ownership," he said.

Atkinson said transparent regulation of PSUs can only be ensured by formation of a regulatory authority. "There is a critical need for regulatory framework in India which is independent of the government," he stressed.

The main job of such a regulatory authority should be introduction of transparency in decision making, said Atkinson. "Initially, the regulatory authority should engage itself in price control and then bring in competition," he said and added that UK was providing help to India in this regard through its experts.

On the adverse effects of PSU restructuring on employment, one of the major factors related to the issue in India, Atkinson said that there was no denying the fact that restructuring affects the utilisation of labour. "In UK, the problem has been tackled through effective voluntary retirement schemes and re-training of workers."

The more important aspect of the process was creation of a large number of new jobs,said Atkinson. "In the electricity sectors, infusion of information technology created large number of new jobs. However, this is a broad generalisation. In the Coal sector, many people lost their jobs. Nevertheless, more jobs were available after restructuring," said Atkinson.He said "There has to be a programme to take the fear away". Commenting on the opposition by trade unions, Atkinson said that many of the trade unions in Uk were not very supportive to restructuring of PSUs in the beginning but they supported the process later because employees were given shares. "In 1980s, number of shareholders grew from 3 million to 10 million," he pointed out.Atkinson, however, said that PSU restructuring in UK cannot be presented as a world model and the country like India will have to devise their own situation-specific methods. "We made mistakes in our experience with the process and learnt from them. India too, will have to pass with that phase," he added.