India Inc still prone to millennium malady, says Y2K panel report

As the Y2K threat draws closer, the Y2K Action Force, headed by Cabinet secretary, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has found many sectors lagging behind in their efforts to meet the challenges thrown open by the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer glitch.

Of particular cause for worry are the power and ports sectors. The Cabinet secretary is meeting port authorities on August 11 to learn about their preparedness in this area. According to the Action Forces report, the poor performance of the power sector may prove to be a major bottleneck. The private sector has also been found to be lagging behind in the area. "Most companies woke up to the Y2K problem in the latter half of 1998 and there are a large number of organisations that have yet to take the problem seriously, says Lalit Sawhney, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industrys (CII) core group on the Y2K issue.

A sample survey by the CII has shown that while most companies have started work on Y2K compliance, there is some ambiguity over the details of their preparedness. While 86 per cent of the respondents claimed they were in the process of testing their systems for compliance, only 52 per cent could say that they had tested all interfaces with external organisations for compliance. One worrying factor seems to be the lack of contingency planning in many of the companies that were surveyed. Only 58 per cent said that they had undertaken risk analysis and had contingency plans in place. Not much work had been done on disaster recovery plans either, it was found. And whats more, around 42 per cent reported that they did not have any recovery plan in place. A majority of the companies had not resolved or even taken into account the legal issues that may arise with warranties and contracts becoming invalid due to the Y2K bug.

CII has suggested that companies and public utility organisations that had made progress in this area could share their efforts with others. The CII has also expressed concern over the poor compliance of the power sector. The association has also been talking to heads of state electricity boards (SEBs) to apprise them of the urgency of the situation.

The report of the Action Force further states that the banking sector has achieved high level of compliance. In the insurance sector, LIC and GIC had made their systems Y(AT)K-compliant, while the civil aviation sector seemed to be on schedule in achieving total compliance. It stated that the telecommunications sector too had made good progress in its efforts in this direction. The department of telecommunication (DoT) has set up nine working groups and expects the necessary measures to be implemented by August 1999. There is however, not much information regarding VSNLs plans in this regard. The Railways passenger reservation system is being updated to correct the anomaly and the work on embedded system is still on.

courtesy : Economic Times dated 7th August, 1999.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), August 24, 1999

Answers

Center gets World Bank aid for Y2K compliance

The Center has received a grant of Rs 1.5 crore from the World Bank for Y2K compliance projects. As earlier reported, several Government sectors are way behind on actual implementation of Y2K-compliance projects. According to senior officials of the Department of Electronics (DoE), this sum is the first in a series of Y2K-related aids and further investments are expected in the near future. Although the timing for the next phase of funding could not be ascertained, it is believed that the next phase of aid would begin only after a review of the overall situation after September this year. The Center had earlier announced a contingency fund of Rs 35 crore in aid of Government units who are finding it difficult to meet the deadline for Y2K-compliance. DoE officials, however, report having received only Rs 17 crore from that amount and are depending on funds from the World Bank. The additional grants from the World Bank would not be enough to meet all the requirements, but would be of immense help given the current state of affairs, said DoE officials.

The Y2K Action Force of the Government of India (GoI) had previously locked horns with the former, suddenly deciding to block all inflow of funds to DoE. Meanwhile, the last date for Y2K compliance has been further stretched to September 30 this year. This has been done as a majority of the departments have failed to meet the earlier deadline of July 31. According to the recent reports of DoE, even crucial sectors like power and telecommunications are still lagging behind in their compliance activities. Although officials were confident that these departments would be able to meet the September 30 deadline, internal reports suggest otherwise. They also hint that some sectors like Power, Ministry of Surface Transport, and a part of the Ministry of Railways are unable to set their systems in place even by this year- end. A high-level committee is expected to review the situation next week and suggest measures to ensure that all the sectors meet the new deadline and are fully Y2K compliant by the end of the year.

courtesy : Express Computer dated : 8 th Aug 1999

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), August 24, 1999.

India's Y2K Chief Says No Cause For Worry

India is unlikely to face major worries related to the Year 2000 bug in computers as key government units and state-run firms are already compliant or racing toward safety, a top monitoring official said Tuesday.

S. Ramakrishnan, senior director in the Department of Electronics and national Y2K coordinator, told Reuters in an interview that power, surface transport and civil aviation were the key sectors the government was keenly monitoring progress. "There is nothing to worry at all,'' he said.The Y2K problem, or the Millennium Bug, can occur in computers that denote years only by their last two digits.Written at a time when computer memories were expensive, this programming deficiency, unless rectified, can cause valuable data loss when the next year dawns.

Ramakrishnan said 90 percent of the compliance was expected to be over by September in the power sector, with a minor spillover to October. However, state electricity boards (SEBs) needed some watching, he said."In the SEBs, reviews are going on. Results will be known after the review. It will take about a fortnight. Some are progressing very well. Some are adequately progressing. On some there is no information,'' he said."But with the focus happening just now, I think SEBs also will get on top (of the problem),'' Ramakrishnan added.There were also some gaps in fixing the Y2K problem at the embedded microchip level,Ramakrishnan said.

"Everybody is tackling the embedded systems. One can't say we have got over the problem. In one month, we will have a better picture,'' he said. ``Prima-facie, the cause for alarm is coming down,'' he said. A key official told Reuters Monday that more than 50 power plants, with a generation capacity of 15,000 megawatts, facing potential danger from the millennium bug were working to turn compliant by October 31. Ramakrishnan said the civil aviation sector, including cargo handling and other aspects considered part of the aviation infrastructure, was already compliant. ``They are saying they have fixed it. We have not done the audit yet,'' he said. The state-run railway system was also close to compliance, he said. Asked about safety-sensitive signaling systems, he said only about 10 among 7,000 points needed compliance of which seven were already compliant. "It is a minor issue, not so much dependent on computers,'' he said.

The petroleum sector was also expected to finish its compliance work soon, he said. ``On the whole the petroleum sector is progressing well. They will keep the deadline of September 1999,'' he said. The country's nuclear power plants, considered a potential hazard in the event of Y2K problem, were already insulated, Ramakrishnan said. "By the end of August they will be compliant. They are following IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) guidelines anyway. Safety is guaranteed,'' he said.

courtesy : www.news.yahoo.com dated : 11th Aug 1999 Y2K Action Force to meet on Aug 18 The Action Force on Y2K is convening a two-day meeting here on August 18 to enable it to be "reassured about the quality of action plans which the various departments of the Government'' are taking to handle the millennium bug. Official sources told Business Line here on Monday key officials involved in Y2K problems held a meeting recently with the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr. K.C. Pant, and the Cabinet Secretary to review the work programmes of the Action Force. "We have received responses from almost 63 secretaries of the Government to whom the letters were sent. They confirmed that in each department an action force had been set up, headed by the officer of a rank of additional secretary of the department.''

Stating that 60 out of the 63 secretaries had already responded, the sources said they had indicated varying time periods of compliance ranging from September to December. On the face of it, the sources said, they had put in place mechanisms which would cause compliance to supervene, though the Y2K matter generally needed to be "checked and double-checked''. The sources said: "What we have decided is that in the second half of this month the Y2K Action Force itself will review the preparation plans in detail of the 11 key departments _ power, telecommunications, railways, civil aviation, surface transport, finance (banking), shipping and ports, petro-chemicals and fertilisers, the big process industries.''

After this, they said, "we will submit our report indicating what action is being taken and what is the time schedule in each department and the Cabinet Secretary will then monitor the action plan by each department according to its own declared action plan''. Since the power sector affects every other system, it is important that the Y2K problem is overcome there "if we want to keep other systems going''. The sources said that while the NTPC had completed Y2K compliance and spent Rs.80 crores in getting new equipment properly installed, the state electricity boards (SEBs) had been requested by the Deputy Chairman, Plan Panel, through two letters (in February and June) to give "high priority attention'' to the Y2K problem. The sources said eight or nine states had responded and "we are awaiting the response of others''.

Separately, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been asked to send a team to visit 55 identified power stations other than NTPC's to ascertain how Y2K is proposed to be handled by them, the sources said. The Action Force held a recent meeting with the Deputy Governor, RBI, Mr. S.P. Talwar, and it was revealed that banks were 96 per cent Y2K compliant. When contacted, the Action Force Chairman, Mr. Montek Singh Ahulwalia, said: "I am also convinced that with the maximum effort they (various departments) can put into it, we should be in a position at the end of the year to have very limited uncovered area...this will require continued pressure, lot of monitoring and double-checking...we continue to be very concerned and we will be extremely watchful.''

Asked to quantify the cost of Y2K compliance to the implementing departments, he said: "It is going to come out of the budget of the operational ministries.You have an equipment that has some computerised control. You may be going to scrap it tomorrow but many people are scrapping their equipment today in order to install better equipment.. now this cost can't be treated as Y2K compliance cost...certain acceleration of replacement and upgradation is taking place...'' he said.

courtesy : The Hindu Business Line dated : 10th Aug 1999

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), August 24, 1999.