Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday addressed the nation on COVID-19 related issues.
While the main highlight of his speech was Rs 20 lakh economic package for a self-dependent India, he also referred to Y2K.
What exactly is Y2K?
The Y2K bug was a computer flaw, that people during the late 1900s thought would prove to be a massive problem when dealing with dates beyond December 31, 1999.
While writing computer programs during 1960s to 1980s, computer engineers used only the last two digits of a year.
For example, "19" was left out from "1999" and only "99" was used. This was done because storing data in computers was a costly process that also took up a lot of space.
As the new century approached, programmers began to worry that computers might not interpret ''00'' as 2000, but instead as 1900.
This led to think that all activities that were programmed would be damaged as a computer would interpret January 1, 1900 instead of January 1, 2000.
Worried by the 'Y2K Problem' that was also known as the 'Millennium bug', both software and hardware companies decided to come up with a solution, and offered 'Y2K compliant' programs to help.
Countries like United States of America, Australia and many more had invested heavily to prepare for the bug, better yet combat it.
But, in the end, due to lack of results, the 'Y2K' bug was dismissed as a hoax.
Coming back to the speech, PM Modi also took a leaf out of Mahatma Gandhi's book and requested India to buy local products. "Local ke liye vocal hona hai," he said.
Admitting that the coronavirus will be an integral part of our lives for the while, PM also stressed on lockdown 4.0. "On taking advice from the states, we will give you a full low down before May 18," he said.
