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Y2K and India's Vital Sectors:
How prepared is India when it comes to vital sectors? There are many systems like power, transport, telecom, banking that may affect us if we fail to practice caution and do nothing about our lackadaisical attitudes. Would we be wise to remain confident that everything's going right on this planet, and will continue to be at 00:00 hours on January 1, 2000? The issue goes beyond computerization and computer dates and time. Though avoidance of early computerization due to sure ignorance seems a boon today, this is just a bird's eye view. Systems that have this kind of a bug could damage or delete and disrupt from telephones, VCR's aircrafts, hospital equipments, to power plant systems and nuclear plants. With built-in microprocessors, and embedded systems hidden in many millions of devices we might be in for massive problems especially since embedded systems are hard to trace systems will be repaired only after they've failed. Vital Sectors Water: According to Subodh Kumar, additional municipal commissioner (projects), Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, there are very few automatic controls in water supply of which none are affected by the Y2K bug. He assures citizens there won't be a water problem on January 1, 2000, however in the event of power cuts, water can't be pumped Power: There are few digitally managed systems but most power stations are based on analogue systems and this could be a cause of concern in India. According to Maharashtra State Electricity Board Mumbai would not plunge into darkness because of the Y2K bug. The Tata Electric Companies, generating power for Mumbai, will also be Y2K-ready.The BEST Undertaking say that replacement of non-Y2K compliant systems is on and contingency plans are in place to deal with failures. Oil & Petroleum: No major impact is expected on the oil and natural energy based products Hospitals: Many monitoring devices that perform CAT scans, MRI scans or heart-checkups are all computer-controlled. In India, this vital sector seems to have been ignored. Hospitals are checking with vendors for compliancy, but there seems to be no concerted drive. Transport Railways: When it comes to Y2K the Indian Railways is ahead of the rest. Services, passenger reservation system will be unaffected and will be fully Y2K-compliant. Airlines & Airports: All Indian operators are Y2K-compliant, and you can check the latest status Mr Bhargava, director, Air-India, says "Airlines will fly," and he is empathetic on a flight flying on December 31, 1999. Telephones & ISPs: MTNL is already Y2K-compliant, and has also made contingency plans. On the ISP front, VSNL has already achieved compliancy in many areas and will be completely Y2K-proof by end of this month. Other ISPs won't face major Y2K problems since they came up some while ago. Internet websites may become inaccessible because of computer as well as communication infrastructure failures. In the cellular/paging sector, very few cellular operators and paging operators have declared Y2K compliance. Banking & Finance Banks: A report from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Y2K is expected very soon. Many banks are confident that they will not emerge bruised due to the Y2K bug. Although the chances may be rare but it is essential to check that your banking systems are ready for the turn of the millennium. Financial institutions: Stock exchanges will not face a problem either. The Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange, which has the largest volumes in will have business as always for NSE trading members on January 1, 2000. Other financial institutions like National Stock Depository are also confident of operations functioning as usual. The Insurance companies like Life Insurance Corporation of India and General Insurance Corporation are working on their systems so as to have compliance with the Y2K issue.
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© 1999 Dr. Raj Mehta. All rights reserved. |