HLL has adopted a time-bound plan to identify the equipment affected and to either replace or repair them. A team of employees has been dedicated to the task and the progress is reviewed directly by the company's management committee and a committee of directors.

"We will achieve compliance by October 31, 1998," says a document entitled "The Year 2000 crisis" released by Lever. "We know that our bankers are also working to deadlines, ranging from June to December 1998," says the booklet, "this will give all of us enough time to check the new systems and ensure that they work."

The Y-2K problem is the result of a programming practice that has been popular throughout this century -- date calculations within a computer use only the last two digits of the year. When the year 1999 changes to 2000, many computers will takethe last two digits, "00", and read them as 1900. This anomaly has the potential to create massive economic and social disorder on a global scale.

The domestic information technology industry has seized upon it as a major business opportunity. Globally, thousands of Indian programmers are engaged in Y-2K projects.

The Lever document provides a strategy on compliance areas which need to be monitored and worked upon to avoid Y-2K problems. The business portfolio for Year 2000 compliance can be grouped into several compliance areas, which include information systems, business applications, end-user developed systems, external business interfaces, infrastructure and others, factory/process systems, and telecommunications systems.

For Lever, the problem is of pressing significance, because the company is either linked or is in the process of linking through improved use of information technology with its distribution chain. As a result of its recent efforts in this direction, both HLL and its distributors,as well as contract manufacturers have been able to save substantially on working capital use.