There are two different time zones in India.

September 2022: Most Recent Revision

Is There a Reason for This Story to Be Reported?

In 2018, the institution responsible for the upkeep of Indian Standard Time (IST), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), published a study outlining the rationale behind having two time zones.

The Standard Time in India: What Do We Know?

• About:
  • The 82°E longitude is the foundation of Indian Standard Time (IST). The 5° latitude line, which traverses Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh (India), close to Allahabad
  • Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
  • Using a total of five caesium atomic clocks, the CSIR-NIPL (New Delhi) serves as India's official timekeeper.
• History:
  • During the reign of the British, time zones were introduced to India in 1884. India had three major time zones before its independence: Bombay Time, Calcutta Time, and Madras Time.
    • Like many other systems inherited from the British, Indian Standard Time is an antiquated relic.
  • In 1906, India had just one IST that traversed the country from north to south.

I don't understand the point of having two time zones.

• Extensive Landmass: India is the World's Largest Country Without Any Time Zones (Behind Only China).
  • In Arunachal Pradesh, India is located at 97°25'E, and in Gujarat, it is located at 68°7'E, so the country spans nearly 30 degrees of longitude, more than enough for two time zones.
• Because of their location, the northeastern region of India (NER) and the Andaman and Nicobar islands (ANI) experience earlier sunrises and sunsets than the rest of the country. This helped fuel the need for two time zones.
  • Because of the single time zone, the NER has long lamented the loss of potentially productive daylight—the sun rises as early as 4 am in the summer, while government offices don't open until 10 am.
• Many people in India work in a time zone that is not a suitable diurnal cycle for them; instead, they follow a biological clock that is timed to the daily light-dark cycles.
  • Kanyakumari, Kavaratti, and Ghuar Mota benefit greatly from the current IST; Alipurduar, Kolkata, Gangtok, Mirzapur, and Gilgitum can make do with it; Dong and Port Blair, on the other hand, are in dire need of a change.
• CSIR Recommendations: In 2006, the former Planning Commission suggested splitting the country in half between two time zones. The request has been supported by the CSIR-NPL, which has proposed two ISTs, each an hour apart.
  • In most of India (between longitudes 68°7′E and 89°52′E), local time is IST-I.
  • IST-II in the Northern Hemisphere, encompassing the latitudes 89°52′E to 97°25′E area.

What are the Consequences of Having Two Time Zones?

• Advantages:
  • The result would be a more productive workforce and reduced energy waste.
    • Having two time zones is beneficial economically because it allows people to work and plan around their biological rhythms.
    • In fact, for a long time now, Assamese tea plantations have operated under their own, unofficial time zone (Chaibagaan Time) that is one hour ahead of IST.
  • Environmentally friendly: Moving IST forward by half an hour would save 2 million gallons of water per year. 7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year could be saved by taking advantage of unused daylight.
    • Due to a severe power shortage, it is crucial for the Indian economy that its citizens learn to conserve electricity.
      • CSIR-NPL estimates that by switching to two time zones, India could save one trillion rupees in electricity costs annually.
    • India's carbon footprint can be reduced significantly through energy conservation, strengthening the country's resolve to combat climate change.
  • Benefits to Society Having two time zones helps society in many ways. For example, it decreases traffic accidents and increases the security of women.
    • More so, studies show that people living in nations with multiple time zones are better able to evaluate their own abilities and make adjustments accordingly, leading to better overall performance.
      • Positive results occurred when employees adjusted their eating, sleeping, and working schedules in response to the time zone change.
• Disadvantages:
  • Office hours that don't sync up, bank hours that aren't convenient, and the potential for more frequent railway accidents due to a lack of consistency in start and end times all contribute to a lack of timing
    • To successfully implement two time zones, railway traffic must be synchronized to avoid complete chaos.
      • Because most people in this region travel by land rather than air, this would cause scheduling issues for those who rely on them.
  • With such high rates of illiteracy and general ignorance, dividing the country into two time zones would cause mayhem at the transition point. Every time you crossed a time zone, you'd have to set your watch again.
    • It would also be difficult to clearly delineate the boundary between the two areas.
  • Divided: India's two time zones may have unfavorable political repercussions, adding to the country's already deep divisions along religious, racial, linguistic, and other lines. , which will be split up along Time Zone lines
    • The implementation of two time zones will alienate the NER from the rest of the country, and the region's residents may become more inclined to call for secession as a result.
  • Adding a second lab to CSIR-NPL's operations in the new time zone is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking. In this case, "Primary Time Ensemble-II" would be used, which can be traced back to the UTC at the BIPM in France.

Is There Any Way to Avoid Using Two Different Time Zones?

• The National Institute of Advanced Science (NIAS) recommended a permanent 30 minute time shift for IST rather than implementing two separate time zones. e by 90°East at 6:00 UTC
  • The National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) concluded in a study spanning four decades that moving the IST forward by 30 minutes would help India increase productivity, save energy, and integrate the North East.
  • In doing so, a significant energy savings of 2 Estimates from 2009 put the number at 7 billion units, or roughly 3 In the present day, 5 billion items)
  • China, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea are among the other Asian nations that have made the one-time adjustment to their clocks.
• By means of the Daylight Saving Time mechanism, clocks are set ahead during the spring and later set back during the fall. From April until September, you can use it. Time change would:
  • Reduce energy waste
  • Increase the amount of evening daylight hours.
  • Step up efficiency
  • Contribute to a rise in tourism (as more hours of daylight would encourage visitors to explore the area and spend more money while they're there).

Method Forward

• The government's ability to collect data and track changes in the economic activity pattern of the nation is crucial to the success of putting the above recommendations into action.
• There should be careful research into issues like the effect of sunrise and sunset times on people's biological activities, and the possibility of synchronizing sunrise and sunset times with work hours.
• Spatial compression near the proposed time boundary, etc. must be attended to
• To make the most of the time that would otherwise be spent in darkness due to a universal IST, it is crucial to solicit input from all relevant parties and settle on a workable solution.