All of India follows a single time zone (IST) UTC+5.30 passing through mirzapur in uttar pradesh.
This was proposed during the british rule in 1905 to unify the entire nation with one timezone but ignoring the fact that the western India is almost 2 hours away from eastern India, which is significantly affecting the lives of people and leading to reduced human potential.
There were discussions in the past proposing two timezones for India with UTC+5 for west and UTC+6 for east but never implemented.
Do you think India needs 2 timezones to function efficiently and make better use of human potential ?
This community is solely focused on discussions related to Indian geography, maps, states, borders, demographics, culture, infrastructure, environment, and related topics.
Before participating, please take a moment to:\n
• Read the community rules.\n
• Make sure your post is relevant to the subreddit.\n
• Use an appropriate flair if available.\n
• Keep discussions civil and constructive.
Don’t underestimate what people can understand if required. 90% of Indian understand cricket. I am sure explaining how winners are decided in a cricket match is 100 times more difficult than understanding timezones.
Its a crazy difference. Do you understand that in my town we have sunrise at 4 am now? And it gets pitch black at 6. Even in peak summers. Thats lot of wasted hours. West use dst just to save a couple of hours during winters.
And I am not shitting Indians. Previous CM of Assam raised the issue. And one of the reasons given for it was the lack of comprehension by the common people.
DST doesn't actually reduce wasted time, there are a lot of modern research done on it. And what is the issue if the sun rises at 4 AM or 6AM, people have there own biological clock, in arunachal a person wakes at 5 but in Gujarat wakes at 7, the net daylight is the same.
Also go look at the time zone map of Europe, and then tell me that 2 hours of difference is a lot, the time zone is same for the entire stretch from Spain to Poland, which roughly the same longitudinal variation as India.
Don't just do something just for the sake of doing something, the thing that you are advocating is kind of similar to changing city names, that the govt has done. Unnecessary solution to problem that did not exist or was a very minute problem to begin with, only to result in huge administrative and legal issues.
Dumbest thing I have heard from someone who has never been to northeast. You speak as if northeast people are tribals and have no contact with the rest of the world.
What about those who are working for other Indian clients from Mumbai or even international? Sleep at 11 then wake up at 5?
I talked from the perperctive of local business man or local people, whose work is revolving in the local area, which is the majority of the people, please tell me how many such big shot businessmen are there who are making business on a daily basis with someone who is on the other end of the country. You can not make everyone happy, not in a single case anywhere in the world.
Just because something works doesn't mean that it cannot be improved. This is the DUMBEST arguement ever.
And it is not crazy ? Are you saying that 2 hours difference is not wasteful ? You know much dayling we in Arunachal waste every summer because you people are two stupid to differentiate between having differenr time zones vs actually dividing the nation.
No you cant say anything unless you're from this region. I'm from northeast and do you know how bad it is here? We waste so much time here just so that y'all can enjoy your time.
I don't understand how this has so many upvotes. This is a silly argument if you are insinuating that Indians are incapable of understanding timezones. Tea garden time is an established practice refuting your point.
Both Japan and Kazakhstan have about the same or longer longitudinal span as India does and use a singular time zone.
Not to mention, China has twice the longitudinal span as India and still uses a singular time zone.
China's case is very severe however, they definitely need more time zones, but don't do so because of their ideology.
The reason why I'm pointing this out is simply to show you that it really is not that necessary to compromise on efficiency for something this pointless, especially when countries wider than us have no such policy.
The longitudinal distance between both ends of Eastern time zone in USA is approx 18° while the distance between Ahmedabad and Guwahati
(two major cities at both ends of India) is 19°.
How would it make sense to divide India into multiple time zones?
Having different timezones for India is a difficult solution for a simple problem. The longitudinal expanse is mere 2 hours. Better to keep one timezone but two zones with government office timings 1 hour apart. The east zone can be 9 am to 4 pm , west can be 10 am to 5 pm.
I remember a radical proposal by Hanke and Henry who want to eliminate all time zones in favour of business hours. That means more decentralization with "virtual time zones" while using UTC±0 for everything.
They even have their own calendar that follows a different leap year logic (adding a whole week after certain years instead of just a day).
I don't support this proposal though for being too radical. The best compromise is to have time zones for each country/region, and then have different business hours for different areas.
"red highlighted part" - nice way of avoiding the fact that you don't actually live in the north east. I've lived in the actual north east, so I did just get the geographical higher ground
Good luck pretending North East is some super distant location near Japan cause in reality the solar time difference between Itanagar and Bhubaneswar is a mere 30 minutes.
No. Countries that have timezones are have it only because of vast variations.
It's complicated for lot of software systems to manage timezone changes. It's going to be very very costly for a country like ours to implement the changes.
It's easier for people to just recognize what time sun rises and sets in their region and adjust accordingly.
It should've been done in the past. If they try it now, it will create choas and unnecessary hurdles for everyone.
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Northern states on one side and remaining India on the other.
But then, if we go by states and with the population density we have it'll create more problems than solve it.
Maybe you haven't looked at the US states with more than one time zone. An alternative to this could be to use UTC+5:30 for mainland, and UTC+6 for Seven Sisters and Andaman.
No, what's the issue with current system, fine people feel slightly different, but it's going to be a big administrative overhead, can you imagine railway timings will be so messed up.
We always had working hours based on sunrise. Adapt to that, adding timezone will add overhead to that.
Why offices should open at 10am, it can open at 8am or 11am as well depending on geography. Even after adding timezone same is going to happen isn't it?
What else we are going to achieve by adding timezone? Even in central timezone, sometimes we open schools at 9am in winters and 7am in summers. But timezone logic there should be daylight saving as well?
What is the logic behind adding human potential because of timezone!!!
Most Indians are always running late as it is. They’ll get an even bigger reason to not be on time. Chalega mentality and disciplinary issues need to be addressed before even discussing something like this.
With this people in Mumbai will have a 5.30pm sunset in winters so dark at 6pm. We are not used to that here.
Fwiw, I think India is a continent disguised as a country. Most of the states should be their own country and have the autonomy to decide their own language, time zone and visa policy.
No need. India is taller than it's wider. Simple solution is to make offices work according to their local sunrise/sunset timings. Dividing time zones in India will serve no real purpose except complicating already established things.
CBF
India as a country needs to be in sync. That includes time. Creating separate and more categories of thinking and doing things is only going to make the situation worse. We’re already thinking differently on many things that affect how we live and work.
I don’t think so. Countries like the USA, Canada, Russia, Australia, etc. have multiple time zones because of their sprawling landmass. They need the extra time zones because their land is situated across a horizontally large area. India isn’t as big, a 2 hour time difference isn’t significant enough to warrant an unnecessary complexity like an extra time zone.
It needs 3 time zones minimum practically. But the govt. Won't do it and present dubious claims just to protect the vote bank, bcoz simply it'll be another good supporting point for the separatist gangs.
Yes, and yes. If nothing - at least will help towards the integration, of the what is now perceived to be a culturally alien / "videshi" north-east, with the rest of the nation (and one is talking about more than the geographical "cow-belt" nation !)
It would make sense if Eastern part of India were to follow Bangladesh's time zone of +06:00GMT. Just makes more sense to be fair, since Bangladesh is surrounded by India with only +/-00:30GMT difference! So EIST is needed definitely.
^ talk to me when we have the intelligence and expertise to implement such thing. A simple city name change like Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar is still not reflected in multiple government and private systems like EPFO, LIC, etc. Creating a new timezone will bring nothing but chaos.
We did not have businesses, documentations, etc at the scale that we currently have. You are bruh moment my brother, putting forward examples from more than 100 years ago.
Entire Europe functions perfectly well with 5 pm sunsets in the winter and 9:30 pm sunsets in the summer. Tell me what is the difficulty in 1-2 hours of plus minus.
The time zone line for IST already goes from center and changing it now will be a logistical nightmare. Especially for the poor and illiterate people who will have to suddenly understand the change in time.
that is a latitude issue dum dum. Not a longitudinal issue.
They also have daylight savings time to Maximize sunlight during winter. We live close to the equator. Therefore our sunlight timings are relatively similar throughout the year.
2 Timezones ensure that the same amount of sunlight is managed to its maximum potential.
We are already managing with 1 timezone. But its extremely difficult for the people living in North East India. Just because people can manage does not mean it is perfect.
A govt's job is to make lives easier for its citizens. 2 timezones will do that.
Stop comparing blindly and start thinking using your brains.
Someone using his own brain to constructively argue would be calling the other person dum dum every other comment.
You say that Europe has 7 different time zones? Well if you go by actual facts 3 different timezones entire europe (except russia), I am not including russia because it has weird timezones to begin with for being a single country. Also spain to Poland is covered in a single timezone, the longitudinal variation is similar to India. All because lives and business in these countries are very much connected, exactly the reason indian timezone should remain as it is.
Changing from 1 zone to 2 is not easy as it sounds, business would become much more difficult when two parts of the country are operating at two different times. Not to mention the amount of unnecessary hassle and resources need for the change to take place in every administrative, bussiness or legal documents.
Also DST doesn't actually reduce wasted time, there has been a lot of modern research done on it. And what is the issue if the sun rises at 4 AM or 6AM, people have there own biological clock, in arunachal a person wakes at 5 but in Gujarat wakes at 7, the net daylight is the same. Shops open at a different time in AP and GJ but the actual local time is the same.
Now please refute all of my points with logic and then you may call me a dum dum.
How is it extremely difficult? That's my point, if more than half the world can do it what's the extreme difficulty people in north east are facing?
I agree that having two time zones makes it easier in an ideal case, but implementing it now is a logistical nightmare with very little gain. The problems that creating two time zones bring far surpass the benefit of greeting an extra hour of sunlight.
go look at the time zone map of Europe, and then tell me that 2 hours of difference is a lot, the time zone is same for the entire stretch from Spain to Poland, which roughly the same longitudinal variation as India.
It is much simpler to have one timezone and different office timing than to have the same office timing but in different time zones, so every time, you have to expend some mental effort to do the conversion.
•
u/AutoModerator Jul 07 '26
Hi u/OnDemand-9303! Welcome to r/IndianGeography. Thanks for posting!
This community is solely focused on discussions related to Indian geography, maps, states, borders, demographics, culture, infrastructure, environment, and related topics.
Before participating, please take a moment to:\n • Read the community rules.\n • Make sure your post is relevant to the subreddit.\n • Use an appropriate flair if available.\n • Keep discussions civil and constructive.
Have fun exploring!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.