Everyone has heard that joke about IST actually meaning "Indian Stretchable Time." Everything from climate to social structures have been blamed for why a lack of punctuality seems as essential to the Indian experience as butter chicken. But there is one thing that might help explain the fluid way Indians choose to experience time: How does one country with over 3,200 kilometers of area in length adhere to just a single time zone?
The sun appears in North-east India much before dawn breaks in Western India and ends up extending or shortening the work day, often in uncomfortable ways. It's not as if the issue of different time zones in the country hasn't come up before but it has never gained much traction for the government to consider it seriously. The debate flared up once again last year when Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi pitched for a new time zone for the state by moving all clocks in the region 60 minutes ahead of the IST arguing that an early daybreak in the northeast would increase productivity and help in saving time.
"We need a local time for Assam and the other northeastern states which will be ahead of the Indian Standard Time by at least an hour to 90 minutes," he said. "We have an early daybreak in the northeast compared to other parts of India and if we have a separate time zone then it would undoubtedly be very productive for all of us and would also help in saving energy," he added.
Even though there's not much hope in the near future of having more than one time-zone in India, it's always an interesting comparison with the rest of the world.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this article stated that "much smaller countries such as France have as many as 12 time-zones", without specifying that these are across its overseas territories spread over different continents.
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The sun appears in North-east India much before dawn breaks in Western India and ends up extending or shortening the work day, often in uncomfortable ways. It's not as if the issue of different time zones in the country hasn't come up before but it has never gained much traction for the government to consider it seriously. The debate flared up once again last year when Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi pitched for a new time zone for the state by moving all clocks in the region 60 minutes ahead of the IST arguing that an early daybreak in the northeast would increase productivity and help in saving time.
"We need a local time for Assam and the other northeastern states which will be ahead of the Indian Standard Time by at least an hour to 90 minutes," he said. "We have an early daybreak in the northeast compared to other parts of India and if we have a separate time zone then it would undoubtedly be very productive for all of us and would also help in saving energy," he added.
Though much wasn't achieved from Gogoi's campaign, the debate continues to turn up. And this map illustrates just why that happens. Pretty much the only large country that is entirely recognisable in this map, which divides the world up by timezones, is India. The same also applies to China, which also uses just one time zone for a massive landmass.
Branden Rishel, Cartographers Without Borders
Even though there's not much hope in the near future of having more than one time-zone in India, it's always an interesting comparison with the rest of the world.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this article stated that "much smaller countries such as France have as many as 12 time-zones", without specifying that these are across its overseas territories spread over different continents.