Whoever was the owner - government or private sector, the CEO should be given freedom to operate, he said.

He was giving an awareness lecture on Wednesday on power sector reforms during the Industrial Economist Business Excellence Award 2000 function which went to Aurobindo Pharma.

According to Kumaramangalam, Salem Steel had a much better chance of proving viable compared to other public sector steel plants in the country.``The Salem plant is clean, efficient and is actually shorthanded, not overstaffed. If the Tamil Nadu government decides to take it over, it would not be a bad decision,'' he said.

Alternate solution to privatisation was having a strategic partner who would take over the responsibility of management while the government would still have its stake. Citing the BSES example, he said that the organisation was allowed to grow because of professional management, and the CEO's ability to make the best use of his experience gained in the past.

Speaking of power sector reforms, he said that private power generation was not possible if the buyers (S EBs) were not found credit worthy. As long as the revenue recovery was a poor 32 per cent, and T & D ( theft and dacoity) losses dominated, private generation will remain a distant reality. It was the rich who had vested interests and were responsible for tampering meters, he pointed out. ``We do not even have an energy audit,'' he said. ``IT as a technology could come to the power sector's rescue. If I had remote switches which would monitor `leaks' I could control them, andrevenues would surge'' he said.