The waste of daylight hours strengthens the case for a separate time zone ahead of IST for the eastern States
Compared to the rest of India, the eastern States of West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, the seven north-eastern States and Sikkim lag in almost all the measures of economic growth. Productivity in these States is low, infrastructure poor and employment opportunities meagre. Overall, the perception is that people of eastern India are lazy and unproductive.
Many factors play a part in the development of a region — its location, weather conditions, political leadership, availability of raw materials, etc. Eastern India is blessed with an abundance of mineral wealth — 93 per cent of India’s iron ore, 84 per cent of its coal, 100 per cent of its kyanite, 70 per cent of its mica, 20 per cent of its limestone, 10 per cent of its manganese, 80 per cent of its tea and about 15 per cent of its crude oil.
If this be so, why then are the States of eastern India less productive than the rest of India?
Since India has a single time zone, States located to the west of the Indian Standard Time line of longitude (82.5°E) have more daylight hours compared to States located to its east.
To calculate the time difference it is useful to know that 15° of longitude is equivalent to one hour.
Too far ahead
Mumbai’s longitude is 78°82’E, Delhi’s is 76°E and Kolkata’s is 88° 22’E. Hence, Kolkata lags Delhi and Mumbai by about 45 minutes. For cities in northeast India, the time difference with Mumbai or Delhi is even greater. Gangtok’s longitude is 88°0’E and, at the other end, Kohima’s is 94°20’E.
The sun rises and sets in all these States in northeast India at least an hour earlier than the rest of the country.
The seven States in northeast India have many political, ideological and ethnic differences. However, the one thing they all agree on is that the clock there must be advanced by one hour during summer and more during the winter months of October to February.
Plus points
Some advantages of advancing the clock would be:
1. Increased productivity: An early start would have more energetic people in the offices.
2. Reduced power consumption: Starting and closing an hour earlier would result in a saving an hour of electricity in offices.
In homes, shops and restaurants about two hours would be saved as people would wake up and go to bed earlier, thus using more of the available daylight hours. A conservative estimate shows that starting the day an hour earlier would result in a saving of about 550 MW of power in northeast India alone.
3. Curbing alcoholism: With five to six “available extra hours” after work and with little else to do most people fall prey to alcoholism.
Revisit decision
The Department of Science & Technology (DST) which examined the feasibility of setting up dual time for India in 2007 turned down a proposal to advance the clock in northeast India by an hour in as it felt it would cause acute administrative challenges.
It is time for the DST to revisit their 2007 decision. The DST should examine the possibility of introducing the new time zone not only for northeast India but for all of eastern India.
The international picture
Singapore is an example of a country that has kept their clock an hour ahead of the standard time longitude.
While Singapore’s longitude is 105°E they have kept their time on 120°E, keeping the country permanently one hour ahead.
This could be one of the reasons for the Singaporean’s greater productivity and prosperity of the island state.
China too follows the longitude of 120°E as their time zone, keeping almost the entire country to the west of their time meridian.
Bangladesh, which is to the west of the northeast States (Dhaka: longitude 90°25’E), keeps its time 30 minutes ahead of India.
In addition, Bangladesh advances its clocks by one hour during the winter months. Thus for five months of the year Bangladesh Standard Time is one-and-a-half hours ahead of India. Could it be this that is helping the country’s steady economic growth?
Since Independence, the States in eastern, especially north-eastern, India have fallen behind the rest of the country and the bedrock of the backwardness is the poor productivity of the people. There are many practical steps to change this and a separate time zone is one.
(R. Rajkhowa is senior executive with a consulting firm.)
Keywords: time zone, daylight, India, energy saving, advancing IST, Daylight Saving Time, time zones
Saying that our government systems can't handle the complexity is not
correct. If SriLanka,Pakistan and Bangladesh can do that why can't we?
Remember day light has psychological effects on work environment. If
Sun sets around 4 pm, majority of people would not like to work after
4 pm. Similarly, Sun rises at 8 am. Majority would prefer working
after sunrise. That is why having two different time zone is necessary
in India. Some pseudo-intelligent bureaucrats conducted study couple
of years ago and found that two time zone would be expensive to India.
I would really like to know their meaningless excuses. The Sun is
life.
Easy. Advance the time zone of whole India by one hour. Just like China, shift our time meridian to east of India. But keep a single time zone for whole country.
It is too complicated to have multiple time zones in India. Just for one reason- our Govt systems can't handle the complexity. As others in the comments section say, why don't they have their offices start at 8 instead of 9, and close at 5 instead of 6? And I wonder how shifting time from 9-6 to 8-5 would prevent alcoholism. Will it not give 6 to 7 extra hours instead of 5 to 6 extra hours after work, and make the problem more severe? Let us not fool ourselves by thinking that the backwardness of the North Eastern India has something to do with timezone. It is because these states are completely isolated from rest of India and also mostly ignored by our politicians very comfortably. Why don't the Govt invite more industries to set up their shops in NorthEast? It will definitely improve the economy and productivity.
It is high time that we take up this issue, we Indians never learn from mistakes nor we try to understand the concept of necessity of this issue. Even Srilanka advanced their time a few years ago just to save power, people should first understand the basic need of the nation to progress ahead is for the people to change their attitude.
Change is always bitter when started but the fruit will be seen in the days ahead.
So change.....
Sadly, the comments here show , how ignorant we are as a country. There is a reason why a seperate time zone has been mooted. If office hours are changed to 8 to 5 , i.e. infact saying working upto 4 starting at 7. Would anyone of us do that in Mumbai or Bangalore? What sort of a non sense argument is it to say we already have different cultures and hence let the time zones be the same. If we do not understand the issue , it is better to understand first and then comment.
As a person who visits North East regularly, I also feel that a separate time zone should be created. Imagine, the sun is up at 4 am and setting at 4 pm. How would it look? Naturally, the shops and the establishments are closing off by 6 pm latest. And the folks need to stay awake until 8 pm atleast. If US can administer different time zones why not us? Think as a North Easterner, stay ther for some time and then you would understand the issue they go through
I couldnt understand alcohol reasoning..on one hand they are less productive because early sunset and on the other they have more free time..paradox?
too simplistic and naive reasoning for time zone! When this issue came to the court, the north-eastern states were advised to change their office hours. Why can't they just change their office hours from 9 to 6 to 8 to 5. We already have so many dividing factors. Tomorrow this may become an argument to have a new nation for north east. you may argue that when US and Russia can manage seven and eleven time zones why can't India have two. But imagine train timings, would they change as soon as we cross 84 degree east? it will be an unnecessary complexity. Who is stopping you from starting your day early. And alcoholism because of free time....really? people don't like to play or meet friends or go shopping? they have nothing else to do! amazing! and our body clock is synced with Sun, not with the wall clock. so why you would have to wait for the clock to show time to bed rather than the dark night hours. Just put clock ahead and GDP would grow faster..wow! i don't have words!
I have never understood the logic behind this. If I were in the NE, I would simply do everything earlier than those in the rest of the country. If shops open at 8 am elsewhere, why wouldn't I open mine at 7 am? Who is forcing them to open at 8 and hence 'lose Valuable
daylight hours'? If one fine day, we decide that 00 hours would actually be at current 6 am, would we suddenly see changes in behaviour?
All that is required is a 24 hour, repetitive cycle. People will work things out for themselves.
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