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The millennium bug

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

A lot has been said about the Y2K bug and its effect. This is an

attempt to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

analysis of the Y2K problem in the Indian scenario.

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Strengths



India, as a nation, is not yet fully computerized like US. The systems,
like water supply, are still under manual or mechanical control

in most of the Indian towns. It's difficult to see failure in water

supply or the working of elevators in on account of Y2K-noncompliance.

Reason is simple-most of the Indian towns systems are not yet under

electronic control. In all probability, if you don't leave in metropolis,

you are unlikely to face the effect of the bug immediately.

Another strength of the country is the large pool of COBOL programmers

we have. Their expertise can be used to tackle the problem.

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Weaknesses



Y2K awareness in the country is pretty low. In fact, Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) instructed banks to give top most priority to Y2K

compliance. But recently, it found most of the banks not conforming

to instructions.

Especially, small businesses refuse to invest in Y2K compliance.

Another problem is there is no data available on the extent to

which the government and its departmental undertakings will be affected

by the millenium bug. The departments like Indian Railways are fully

computerized. If these don't address the problem properly, the result

can be disastrous-errors in wrong signaling claim thousands of lives.

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There is no data available as to what extent the government has

been able to make its systems Y2K-compliant.

Opportunities



Every problem brings with it a hidden opportunity. The millenium
problem also holds a lot of promise for the software companies.

The Indian software industry has earned quite a bit from the Y2K

solutions, and this is likely to continue till year 2001 as the

Y2K rectification will continue.

Threats



Time is the threat. What come may, the Y2K deadline will stay December
31, 1999. Though it applies to all countries, it becomes a major

threat to India as we were late in starting our efforts to address

the issue.

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