Paper submitted to Energy for Sustainable Development, September 2000 (published September 2001).This paper demonstrates—based on examples from three crucial aspects of the Indian power sector, agricultural tariff policy, independent power producer policy, and policies regarding non-conventional sources of energy—that the real cause of the present malady in the Indian power sector is lack of effective and mandatory mechanisms and processes to ensure transparency, accountability, and participation (TAP) in the sector. The paper argues that instilling public control on the sector, through “TAP” is the real challenge in power sector reforms.