Cobol is simple and powerful language. It is evergreen for 100 yrs now.

FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE  ===> will retrieve current date & Time in the below format.

Usage: MOVE FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE(1:8)  TO WS-CURRENT-DATE

By using MOVE and Reference modification we can retrieve the part of  it as needed.

01  WS-CURRENT-DATE-FIELDS.

             05  WS-CURRENT-DATE.

                 10  WS-CURRENT-YEAR        PIC  9(4).

                 10  WS-CURRENT-MONTH   PIC  9(2).

                 10  WS-CURRENT-DAY        PIC  9(2).

             05  WS-CURRENT-TIME.

                 10  WS-CURRENT-HOUR       PIC  9(2).

                 10  WS-CURRENT-MINUTE  PIC  9(2).

                 10  WS-CURRENT-SECOND  PIC  9(2).

                 10  WS-CURRENT-MS           PIC  9(2).

             05  WS-DIFF-FROM-GMT       PIC S9(4).

I wiil add some more in part-2.