28 Jul
WHY IN THE NEWS?
Recently, Assam Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stressedthe need for a separate Time Zone for the country.
HISTORY OF TIME ZONES IN INDIA
- It was the British who envisaged a separate time zone in the tea gardens of Assam around 150 years ago.
- “Chai Bagan time” or “local time” followed in the tea gardens is primarily a time zone set on the sunrise.
- Before September 1947, India followed three different time zones: Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.
- From September 1, 1947, India officially adopted 5° E longitude as Indian Standard Time (IST) which is equal to Coordinated Universal Time + 5 hours 30 minutes.
- The Assam wants to change its zone back to the British’s Chaibagaan time to conserve energy and improve productivity.
- Government of India didn’t accept the proposal.
TIME ZONE
- Countries across the globe keep different time zones because of Earth’s rotation and revolution around the Sun.
- When the Earth turns by 15° around its axis, the time changes by one hour thus, a 360º degree rotation yields 24 hours and 1° takes around 4 minutes.
- In 1884, an international agreement agreed to choose the zero meridiansas the one that passes through the Royal Astronomical Observatory at Greenwich, near London.
- This is the Prime Meridian (0°) from which all other meridians radiate eastwards and westwards up to 180°.
- They determine local time in relation to G.M.T. or Greenwich Mean Time, which is sometimes referred to as World Time.
- It is concluded that places east of Greenwich see the sun earlier and gain time, whereas places west of Greenwich see the sun later and lose time.
INDIAN STANDARD TIME
- Indian Standard Time calculates on the basis of 82.5° E longitude, situated to the west of the town Mirzapur, near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.
The longitude difference between Mirzapur and the United Kingdom’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich would be around 5 hours 30 minutes.
WHY DEMAND FOR DIFFERENT TIME ZONES?
- Fuels productivity
- Northeast loses important daylight which can be used productively as the sun rises as early as 4 am in summer and offices open at 10.
- Wastage of resources
- Save on power consumption – Advancing the time by 30 minutes alone could save 2.7 billion units of electricity every year.
- Environmental benefits
- Significantly reduces the carbon footprint and arrests rapid climate change
- Circadian rhythm
- People’s productivity and efficiency follow a biological clock that is synchronized with the daily light-dark cycles.
- Circadian rhythm is the 24-hour cycle that tells our bodies when to sleep, rise, and eat which is regulating many physiological processes.
- Internal body clock is affected by environmental cues, like sunlight and temperature, and determines whether one feels wide-awake and energized or tired.
- Cognitive Impairment- Sleep deprivation negatively impacts the cognitive intake of children.
- Social benefits
- It can reduce road accidents.
- Better safety ecosystem for women, especially working professionals.
- Economic gain
- India incurs an annual human capital loss of around 0.2 percent of nominal GDP due to the existing Single time zone policy.
PROBLEMS WITH DIFFERENT TIME ZONES
- National mismatch
- Mismatch in office timings and different working hours for banks may lead to confusion.
- Chances that railway accidents might become more frequent.
- Disturbs Unity
- India is already divided into lines of language,religion, ethnicity, and caste. It may further aggravate the dividing tendency to the next level.
- Operational difficulty
- It is difficult to reset clocks with each crossing of the time zone.
- Strategic reasons
- Northeast demanding separate statehood would get a legitimate reason to justify their need for separation from the mainstream Indian subcontinent.
SUGGESTIONS FOR DIFFERENT TIME ZONES
- Demand for different time zones was first raised in 2002. Since then, the matter raised in Parliament16 times.
- In 2006, the Planning Commission recommended two time zones.
- In 2009, an expert committee was appointed by the union ministry on Science and Technology and found North Eastern states incur huge wastages due to early sunrise, thus working hours must be ahead by one hour.
- A report by CSIR-NPL stated the need for two time zones- 1) IST-1 where UTC+ 5 hours and 30 minutes, 2) IST-2 where UTC+6 hours 30 minutes are to be provided. Moreover, a line has to be drawn from 89.52° E longitude passing through the “chicken’s neck” in West Bengalas coordinated UTC to be constructed.
- However, a High-Level Committee by the Secretary of Science and Technology, DG of CSIR-NPL, and Chief Secretary of Tripura recommended not to have two zones due to strategic reasons.
CONCLUSION
The need of the hour is to study those countries having multiple time zones such as the USA, Canada, and Russia, about their way of operation, and day-to-day mechanisms. It is better to consult all the stakeholders and arrive at a better decision based on reliable evidences.
