Ashraf Engineer
February 22, 2025
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to All Indians Matter. I am Ashraf Engineer.
India is a vast country, better viewed in geographical terms as a subcontinent. It stretches 3,000 km from east to west – that’s 30 degrees of longitude. If you were to look at this in terms of mean solar times, it’s a two-hour difference across the country’s breadth. In other words, the sun rises two hours earlier in the easternmost corner of India than in the westernmost.
Many have argued that India should move to two different time zones to make the best use of daylight in the eastern parts. Because of the single time zone, Indians in the east need to start using their lights earlier in the day and therefore consume more electricity. It also has an impact on health, education and economic output – as we shall see.
Yet, India clings to a single time zone.
In fact, in January, the government drafted rules mandating the exclusive use of Indian Standard Time, or IST, across all official and commercial platforms. The Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2024, establish a legal framework for standardising timekeeping. This means a single IST is the sole time reference for legal, administrative and commercial documents.
The rules prohibit other time references for official and commercial purposes. Display of IST is mandatory in government offices and institutions as are time-synchronisation systems to ensure reliability, availability and cybersecurity. The proposal aims to ensure precise timekeeping in critical national infrastructure, including telecom, banking and defence.
But, is a single time zone a good thing for a nation as vast as ours?
SIGNATURE TUNE
Let’s go back in time to see how the IST came into being.
Until the 19th century, India operated on localised times, which were – believe it or not – often different not just from city to city, but village to village. In the backdrop was the East India Company, which was gradually taking control over vast parts of the country.
The East India Company started managing one of Asia’s first observatories, in Madras as it was known then, by 1792. A decade later, its first official astronomer declared Madras time to be “the basis of Indian Standard Time”.
It was not universally accepted, though, and it took the advent of steam-powered locomotives and the business interests of the East India Company to make that happen.
Meanwhile, there were debates around the world on time zones, driven by the need to better coordinate rail travel and improve maritime navigation. It was at a conference in Washington, DC, in 1884 that the first international time zones were established. The zones were based on the Greenwich Meridian, a longitude that runs north-south through the Greenwich Observatory in London. Time zones to the east of it are later than the Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, in hourly increments.
It took a while for this system to be adopted globally. In India, people were still arguing over Madras Time. The railways were critical for the East India Company, which relied on them to transport raw material and goods, and so they adopted Madras Time as a standardised framework of timekeeping. However, there was great opposition from workers and local communities who did not want rigid new timess imposed on them.
After much argument, Madras Time was established nationwide by 1905, with only a few still resisting it.
At the start of the 20th century, scientific associations pushed for the calibration of India’s time to GMT. Accordingly, the Royal Society in London proposed two time zones for India: six hours ahead of GMT for the east and five hours for the west.
The colonial government, however, rejected it and opted for a unified time that was in the middle: five and a half hours ahead of GMT. This was because, as I’ve said, they needed standardisation for the running of the railways. Different time zones would have complicated their management and even caused confusion about train arrivals and departures.
So, in 1906, the British officially introduced what is now known as IST.
Since then, the single time zone has been at the centre of great debate. Many in the North-East have demanded a separate time zone.
Incidentally, the problem isn’t unique to India. China, which is much larger, also has only one time zone.
India’s official timekeeper is the National Physical Laboratory, which too called for two time zones: five and a half hours ahead of GMT for one side of India, and six and a half hours for the “extreme northeast regions”.
Other than reasons like power consumption, there are health concerns – such as the impact of sunlight on natural circadian rhythms on people, especially children. The sun’s movement across the sky affects our body clocks. As it gets darker, the body starts to produce the sleep hormone melatonin. Children exposed to later sunsets go to bed later. However, fixed school times do not allow for adjustments in wake-up times. This means less sleep and poorer educational outcomes.
There is data to suggest that children exposed to later sunsets get fewer years of education, and are less likely to complete primary and middle school. An hour’s delay in annual average sunset time reduces education by 0.8 years, says the data. Also, sunset-induced sleep deprivation is worse for the poor. This is probably because sleep environments among poor households are associated with noise, heat, mosquitoes, overcrowding and lack of comfort. Also, its has psychological consequences like stress.
Early sunrise also leads to the loss of daylight hours as offices open too late to take advantage of the sunlight. In winters, the problem is worse because the sun sets so early that more electricity is consumed to manage tasks.
Among others, even the National Physical Laboratory has asserted that the circadian rhythm’s impact on health and efficiency impacts socioeconomic development.
Some calculations suggest that India will achieve an annual human capital gain of $4.2 billion if it switches to two time zones. In fact, tea gardens in Assam have long set their clocks an hour ahead of IST – think of it as an informal time zone.
Despite the arguments for two time zones, it’s unlikely they will be established. Governments have always been reluctant to switch.
In 2019, a government committee rejected the concept over unspecified “strategic reasons”. In 2002, a government panel shot down such a proposal, citing complexities. For instance, there could be a risk of accidents as trains reset times when crossing from one time zone to another.
So, what are the advantages of a single time zone?
For one, it simplifies the scheduling of transportation, businesses and government operations. It eliminates the confusion that comes with managing multiple time zones.
It is also cited as a symbol of shared identity and unity. Lastly, standardised working hours enable smoother economic activity and coordination.
There is no doubt that multiple time zones could mess up some things initially. Like any major change, it would take some getting used to. However, the advantages in terms of health and education gains, as well as lower power consumption, do make it seem like a good policy to have. Yet, as I mentioned, governments have been reluctant to take the risk and it’s unlikely we will see the implementation soon.
Thank you all for listening. Please visit allindiansmatter.in for more columns and audio podcasts. You can follow me on Twitter at @AshrafEngineer and @AllIndiansCount. Search for the All Indians Matter page on Facebook. On Instagram, the handle is @AllIndiansMatter. Email me at editor@allindiansmatter.in. Catch you again soon.
