Wednesday, September 15, 1999 Published at 15:30 GMT 16:30 UK

India's power supply is of particular concern

India and Pakistan have hit back at British and American warnings that public services will be hit by the millennium computer glitch.

Both countries' authorities say critical Y2K compliance programmes should be in place by the end of next month.

The assurances come in the wake of reports that the British Foreign Office is likely to name India amongst the countries worst prepared to meet the millennium bug challenge.

The United States' State Department also singled out South Asia as one of the regions in the world most likely to be affected.

Y2K is computer industry shorthand for the problems faced by computers that may encounter confusing date information on 1 January next year.

In India, the US report says, the big question is readiness of computer systems in electricity supply and at sea ports.

In Pakistan, it claims, there is a significant risk of disruption in key areas such as health care, banking and also electricity supply.

Power fears

But according to India's Secretary of the Federal Department of Electronics Ravindra Gupta, India would have no threat due from Y2K.

Mr Gupta said essential sectors like the civil aviation, railways and telecommunications would be fully geared to meet the situation by the end of October.

Answering fears of a major power failure on New Year's Day, he said more than 80% of the power sector is already Y2K compliant.

And similar claims have come from Pakistan.

Ahsan Iqbal, a senior civil servant, told the BBC that much progress had been made in solving millenium computer problems in just the last few months.

Though little is known about armed forces procedures, Mr Gupta said he could assure that no missile is going to take off on its own.

But Mr Gupta accepted that India has not been able to communicate this message effectively to the world.

Mr Gupta said the assessment of most developed countries is based on data published months ago, while India has achieved what he called great success in the last few weeks in preparing critical sectors to meet the challenge.

Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal pointed out that the Y2K problem had provided many opportunities for the Indian software business to flourish.

He hoped that the Indian industry would also take advantage of this in the post-Y2K era.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 17, 1999