• The government has drafted comprehensive rules mandating the exclusive use of Indian Standard Time (IST) across all official and commercial platforms.
• Aiming towards ‘One Nation, One Time’ and achieving precision in IST, the Department of Consumer Affairs has undertaken a project in association with National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to disseminate IST with millisecond to microsecond accuracy.
• The Indian Standard Time (IST) is based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) with an offset of +5:30 hours.
Why is time synchronisation important?
• Time precision is vital for sectors such as navigation, telecommunications, power grid synchronisation, banking, digital governance, and cutting-edge scientific research, including deep space navigation and gravitational wave detection.
• Despite its importance, IST is not mandatorily adopted by all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), many of whom rely on foreign time sources like GPS.
• Synchronising all networks and systems to IST is essential for national security, real-time applications and the smooth operation of critical infrastructure.
Draft Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules
• The Draft Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2025 are published by the Legal Metrology Division, Department of Consumer Affairs as a comprehensive rule standardising and mandating the use of Indian Standard Time (IST) across India.
• It aims to establish a legal framework for standardising timekeeping practices, mandating IST as the sole time reference for legal, administrative, commercial, and official documents.
• It will provide substantial benefits to consumers by creating a comprehensive framework for precise and uniform timekeeping across the country.
• These rules synchronise communication networks, technological infrastructure, and public services, enabling seamless interactions and enhancing economic efficiency.
• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - National Physical Laboratory (NPL), is responsible for the maintenance and for keeping it traceable to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) provided by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) located in Sevres, France.
• The Department of Consumer Affairs is collaborating with the National Physical Laboratory and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop a robust time generation and dissemination mechanism.
• IST shall be the mandatory time reference across all sectors, including commerce, transport, public administration, legal contracts, and financial operations, as per the draft rule.
• No person or entity shall use, display, or record time other than IST for official or commercial purposes.
• Exceptions will be allowed for specialised fields such as astronomy, navigation, and scientific research, subject to prior government approval.
• Violations of the proposed rules will attract penalties, with periodic audits planned to ensure compliance across sectors.
Why there is demand for two time zones?
• India currently has a standard time based on its mean longitude.
• Geographically, India stretches from 97.4 East in Arunachal to 68 East in Gujarat, a difference of almost 30 degrees of longitude. This translates into a time difference of nearly about two hours across the breadth of India and hence having a single time zone for all of India is impractical to begin with.
• There have been requests from certain sections in the northeastern region for a separate time zone on the grounds that the sunrise and sunset in that part are much earlier than the official working hours.
• The people from the northeast region are genetically attuned and practically accustomed to waking up very early, finishing dinner early in the evening and other similar such lifestyle habits, in sync with their geographical and societal norms.
• The current setup completely ignores the specific regional and cultural context for such a large chunk of the country’s citizens.
• Globally, many large nations use multiple time zones for increased efficiency and productivity and easier coordination.
• Following separate and specific time zones will allow for greater productivity and efficiency for citizens as well as contribute to savings in energy consumption.
• In 2006, the Planning Commission released a report that stated that having two time zones would lead to substantial energy savings and subsequently numerous other research papers have confirmed the same.
• The Constitution already grants the autonomy to states to define and set local times for their respective industrial areas under the provisions in labour laws, such as the Plantations Labour Act, 1951.
• In 2002, the Department of Science and Technology constituted a high level committee to explore the feasibility of having two separate time zones given the longitudinal difference between the extreme regions of the country. The Committee observed that having separate time zones may not provide any major advantage to the states but may pose difficulties in view of differential timings to be framed for airlines, railways, communication services, etc.
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