In this context, he cited the model adopted by US legislature in promulgating a Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act as a good example to follow.

"It is essential to understand that not every computer will be fixed and some of those that have been remedied and tested could still experience problems. Therefore, our primary challenge in the next 120 days should be to focus on those areas where the highest probability for failures exists and to ensure that all organisations have contingency orback-up plans to handle any difficulties," said Mehta.

Nasscom has also urged international agencies to upgrade India's Y2K preparedness rating against international benchmarks. It has written to the governments of the US, UK, Japan and international agencies round the world, enclosing a status report on India's Y2K preparedness achieved in recent months.

Nasscom has also written to US state department inspector-general Jacquelyn L Williams-Bridgers, appraising him of the country's sector-wise compliance status. Mehta said this was in response to a recently-released report by the state department which had identified India as "poorly prepared for the Y2K bug".

The request to upgrade the country's rating to level 2 from level 3 is based on Nasscom's finding that sufficient preparedness levels have been achieved, accompanied by decreasing potential risk to businesses, according to Mehta.

"Our ongoing survey reveals that some of the large business and government departments have even done internaltesting and have tested system operations with their business partners," he said.

Level 2 indicates `good preparation though challenges remain' as against level 3 which indicates `sufficient awareness, risk of business disruption', according to an internationally popular Y2K compliance rating scale.

In spite of the good work done in India in the last few months, many international agencies were yet to properly evaluate the country's position on Y2K preparedness, mainly because of lack of information, according to Nasscom.

"If international agencies put things in the right perspective, India would join the level 2 countries such as Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Singapore," added Mehta.