A Case For Two Indian Standard Times.
(1) Introduction.
We were on our trip to Guwahati and Shillong. In both
the places we realised that it used to dawn early. The
sky would be bright at about quarter past four and sun
would rise before five 'O' clock. At six or quarter
past six it would be up in the sky as if it was eight
thirty or nine 'o clock in Western India . Consequently
it would be dark at half-past six PM in the evening as
against the darkness which was seen in the Western
India. I would find it difficult to adjust my body rhythm
to this clock. Luckily this wasn't required to
continue for long. I was back to Mumbai with in a week.
This set my mind on a thought " why should we have a
standard time which is so discordant with the local
time " especially in the Eastern part of the country? Is
it allright? Doesn't it have any effect on economy,
health and psychology of the people living in the area?
Shouldn't we approach the issue more scientifically
and analyse the same and question the status quo, rather
than taking it as a fait-acomplii?
(2) Rotational Time Solar-time, Daylight saving-time.
Let us now understand different terms used for
measurement of time .
The Earth's rotation causes the stars and the sun to
appear to rise each day in the East and set in the
West.
The apparent solar day is measured by the interval of
time between two successive passages of the Sun across
the observer's celestial meridian, the visible half of
the great circle that passes through the zenith and
the celestial poles.
Apparent solar time is the hour angle of the centre of
the true Sun plus 12 hours.
Mean solar time is 12 hours plus the hour angle of the
centre of the fictitious mean Sun.
Local mean solar time depends upon longitude; it is
advanced by four minutes per degree eastward. In 1869
Charles F. Dowd, principal of a school in Saratoga
Springs, N.Y. proposed the use of time zones, within which
all localities would keep the same time. Others,
including Sir Sandford Fleming, a Canadian civil engineer,
strongly advocated this idea. Time-zones were adopted
by U.S and Canadian railroads in 1883.
In October 1884 and international conference held in
Washington, D.C., adopted the meridian of the
instrument at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, as the prime
or zero, meridian. This led to the adoption of 24
standard time zones. The boundaries of which are determined
by local authorities. These boundaries in many
places deviate considerably from the 15 intervals of zones.
The international Date Line is a zigzag line in the
mid-Pacific Ocean near 180 longitude. When one travels
across it westward a calendar day is added; one day is
dropped in passing eastward.
During World War I daylight-saving time was adopted
in various countries; clocks were advanced one hour to
save fuel by reducing the need for artificial light in
evening hours. During World War II , all clocks in the
United States were kept one hour ahead of standard
time for the interval Feb.9, 1942-Sept.30,1945, with no
changes made in summer. Beginning in 1967, by act of
Congress, the United States has observed daylight-saving
time in summer, though state legislatures retain the power
to pass exempting laws, and a few have done so.
(3) Definition of standard-time
Sir Sandford Fleming, a Canadian railway planner and
engineer, outlined a plan for worldwide standard time
in the late 1870s. Following this initiative, in 1884
delegates from 27 nations met in Washington, D.C. and
agreed on a system basically the same as that now in
use. The present system employs 24 standard meridians of
longitude (lines running from the North Pole to the
South, at right angles to the Equator)15 apart, starting
with the prime meridian through Greenwich , England.
These meridians are theoretically the centres of 24
standard time zones; in practice, the zones have in many
cases been subdivided or altered in shape for the
convenience of inhabitants.
(4) Biological clock of plants, animals and human
bodies -
effect of temperature/ prescriptions of
Swastha-vritta (Ayurved).
It is well established that living organisms
often have some sort of internal
clock that regulates their behaviour. There is a
tendency, for example, for
leaves of leguminous plants to alter their
position so that they lie in one
position by day and in another position by
night.
In animals, similar daily rhythms are usually
acquired, but in experimental conditions animals nevertheless
tend to adapt better to a 24 hour rhythm than to any
other.
Similarly, humans themselves have some power to
estimate time in the absence of clocks and other sensory
cues.
Temporal rhythms in both plants and animals (including
humans) are dependent on temperature. Experiments on
human subjects have shown that, if their temperature is
raised, they underestimate the time between events.
Ayurved had taken into consideration the effect of the
rotational movement of the Earth, Sunrise & rise in
temperature due to the position of the Sun on human
body. Therefore it has prescribed getting up well before
sunrise and starting the daily chores as well before
the sunrise so that before mid-day when the Sun is positioned
exactly above your head you could have finished major
chunk of your important work.
In doing so you would use the best hours of the day
when temperatures are low and the efficiency is high.
Productivity in this period is at its peak.
With this one can justifiably rest in the afternoon
(mid-day) when the temperatures are high and efficiency
is low. One can also utilize this time for lunch as
one is expected to be hungry after a couple of hours of
hard work.
But does it happen this way?
(5) The reality It is seen that where as in Imphal mid-day is at
about 11.12 to 11.16 at Rajkot and Mumbai it is at about
12.40 even between Kolkata and Mumbai the difference
in midday is of one hour. The Eastern sector plunges
in to darkness more than one hour earlier and also
brightens up about an hour earlier than the Western
sector. (6) Mis-match of Biological clock, solar time and
standard time - Effects thereof. (7) Consideration of the work force population &
Saving of effective working hours. The total population in the Eastern sector form
longitude 80* E to 97*E is of the order of 30 crores. This
covers the state of Bihar, Jharkhand Orissa, West
Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, and all states in the North East.
Let us assume that out of the 30 crores 12 crores are
able and working hands. The effective gain due to
efficient management of productive time as brought out
above in para 4 is one hour per day per workman.
12 crores multiplied by one eighth of a man-day works
out to 1.5 crores man days per day. If the daily
minimum wages are rupees 39 this amounts to the
generation of wealth of Rs.58.5 crores per day. With
200 working days in a year this would amount to Rs.
11,700 crores per annum.
This whooping sum would certainly change the face of
Eastern India and in its turn that of Bharat. Day light- saving - Saving of energy Reduction in pollution (9) Countries having more than one ST. (10) Possible problems and their solutions. (11) Conclusion and agency for the change.
Now let us have a look at our country. It is a
vast sub-continent spread over
2000KMs from East to West. It's longitudinal
co-ordinates are 97*25'E to
68*07'E.That means it encompasses 29 longitudinal
lines. Between two
adjacent longitudes the time lag is 4 minutes.
This means between the
East and West ends of our country the time
difference is of 116 minutes, i.e.
nearly 2 hours.
World over scientists have made 24 time zones,
equal to the number of hours that that Earth takes to
rotate round itself. Each time-zone covers 15
longitudes. Our country actually spreads over to two time-zones.
We had the freedom to have two standard times. I am not aware
of any reason for not doing so. On our West Pakistan
STD time is at GMT+5 hours where as on the East
Bangladesh STD time is at GMT+6 hours. Our country expands
much beyond Bangladesh. Now let us have a look at the
table showing sunrise, Sunset, twilight start and end
and midday timings of selected cities in Eastern and
Western India on two days one in summer i.e. 22.06.2001
and one in winter i.e. 22.12.2001.
City
Midday
Length
of day in Hours
Civil Twilight start
Sun
rise
Sun
set
Civil
Twilight End Eastern India Imphal
11.12
10.36
5.30
5.55
16.30
16.55 Agartala
11.20
10.40
5.39
6.04
16.43
17.05 Shilong
11.20
10.33
5.39
6.05
16.37
17.02 Guwahati
11.22
10.30
5.42
6.07
16.37
17.03 Kolkata
11.34
10.45
5.43
6.12
16.57
17.22 Patna
11.40
10.33
6.07
6.32
17.04
17.30 Western India Rajkot
12.49
10.46
6.57
7.22
18.08
18.33 Mumbai
12.36
10.50
6.44
7.07
18.06
18.30 Ahmedabad
12.37
10.43
6.52
7.16
17.59
18.24 Jaipur
12.25
10.27
6.46
7.12
17.39
18.04 Chandigarh
12.21
10.10
6.50
7.16
17.26
17.53 Banglore
12.19
11.22
6.14
6.37
17.59
18.33 Cochin
12.23
11.33
6.14
6.37
18.10
18.33
City
Midday
Length
of day in Hours
Civil Twilight start
Sun
rise
Sun
set
Civil
Twilight End Eastern India Imphal
11.16
13.41
4.00
4.26
18.07
18.32 Agartala
11.26
13.37
4.13
4.38
18.15
18.41 Shilong
11.24
13.44
4.06
4.32
18.16
18.42 Guwahati
11.25
13.47
4.06
4.32
18.19
18.45 Kolkata
11.30
13.31
4.27
4.52
18.23
18.49 Patna
11.41
13.44
4.33
4.59
18.44
19.10 Western India Rajkot
12.40
13.30
5.39
6.04
19.34
19.59 Mumbai
12.40
13.17
5.38
6.02
19.19
19.43 Ahmedabad
12.41
13.33
5.29
5.55
19.28
19.53 Jaipur
12.28
13.50
5.07
5.34
19.24
19.50 Chandigarh
12.24
14.28
4.53
5.21
19.29
19.56 Banglore
12.21
12.53
5.31
5.55
18.48
19.12 Cochin
12.26
12.42
5.43
6.06
18.48
19.11
Human life in the modern times is more and more
linked to the clock which shows the standard time.
It is Unfortunate that majority of the people do not
give importance to the position of Sun in the sky. Most
of our routines are linked with the standard time.
Therefore, in the Eastern sector when people come to
offices the time that is left before it is a true midday
is hardly an hour or so. Same is the case of shops and
trade. Thus a very valuable, productive and relatively
cool one hour is lost .
Similarly in the evening the night comes early by one
hour leading to preponement of midnight by one hour.
Therefore, the midnight in Eastern sector is actually
to be reckoned at about 11.00pm Indian standard time.
The prescription of Swastha Vritta ( Ayurved) is that
one should sleep minimum two hours before midnight so
as to get a good sleep leading to good health.
But in practice the prime time of the Doordarshan and
other news & entertainment channels extends well
beyond 10.00PM IST. Which actually leaves less than one
hour for the people in Eastern India before midnight
which is not a healthy practice.
S.N.
State
Population - 1991 1
Meghalaya
1760626
2
Tripura
2744827
3
Mizoram
686217
4
Manipur
1826714
5
Nagaland
1215573
6
Arunachal
858392
7
Sikkim
403612
8
Assam
22294562
9
West Bengal
67982732
10
Bihar
86338853
11
Orissa
31512070
Having two standard times in our country would also
help in saving a lot of electricity and energy. As the
twilight end timings would closely match the time of
closer of shops and other establishments. Though it
would be difficult to quantify the savings on this
account it can be easily guestimated to thousands of crores
of rupees.
Due to the changed standard time for Eastern India
the daylight utilisation will improve by one hour which
would automatically entail reduction of requirement of
power which will be also reduce utilisation of diesel
generator sets in cities and major towns. This will
help reduce pollution significantly.
Following countries have more than one standard time:
Canada, USA, Russia, Australia Indonesia.
Where as
Russia has nearly 13 standard times Canada, USA and
Australia have 6 ,7 and 3 standard times respectively. A
relatively smaller country like Indonesia has two
standard times .Therefore India has every reason to
seriously think of more scientific management of its daylight
and productive hours of each day.
All that is required is a putting our heads together
and finally a decision to divide the country in two
geographical time zones. each covering approximately
fifteen longitudes 68E to 83E and 83 to 97E. However for
each contiguous area of a state even if small portion
lies on the other side of dividing line. It will be
treated as falling in the same time zone as that of the
major portion of the state . These are however matters
of details to be discussed at the stage of
implementation .
The adoption of two standard times will affect
transport, communication and broadcasting business to the
extent of adjustments in their time tables,
time-specifications for concessions, claims and such legal and
financial matters.
(a) Time tabling for Rlys. and Air lines.
(b) Time reckoning for communications for
Telecommunications.
(c) Time reckoning for Doordarshan and All India radio
for commercial charges.
However these are also details to be worked out by
the service provider
In the ancient times for every major occasion there
used to be a high priest. Similarly for this major
change there will have to be an agency which will have to
take lead in this matter. Since this issue touches
science, health, and economy, The ministries of Science
and Technology ,culture, Human resource development
and finance at centre or the various state governments
of the states in the Eastern sector could take lead in
this regard. This has some thing to do with being more
scientific in our approach towards conducting our
lives.
FA&CAO/ EAST CENTRAL RAILWAY / HAJIPUR
District - Vaishali ( Bihar )
pstendulkar@yahoo.com
smrimal@bol.net.in
Tel: 06224-74756(O), 0612-683744.