'One Nation, One Time' under IST to ensure accuracy and national security: Pralhad Joshi

New Delhi, June 18: Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday highlighted that the upcoming Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2025, will mandate synchronisation of all legal, commercial and administrative activities with Indian Standard Time (IST), prohibiting the use of alternative time references unless explicitly authorised.

The minister emphasised the strategic significance of the Time Dissemination Project being implemented by the Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with CSIR-NPL and ISRO.

Addressing a Round Table Conference on Time Dissemination at Vigyan Bhawan here, the Minister underscored that precise and uniform dissemination of IST across sectors such as financial markets, power grids, telecommunications, transportation, and others is essential to ensuring fairness, accuracy and national security.

The initiative aims to deliver IST with millisecond to microsecond accuracy through five Regional Reference Standard Laboratories (RRSLs) equipped with atomic clocks and secure synchronisation protocols like NTP and PTP, ushering in a new era of digital and administrative efficiency under the vision of ‘One Nation, One Time’, he explained.

For the common man, this initiative translates into more secure digital transactions, accurate billing in utilities, reduced cybercrime risks and synchronised timekeeping in transportation and communication, ensuring fairness, transparency, and trust in day-to-day services.

Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Nidhi Khare, in her presentation, highlighted the urgent need for accurate, secure and legally mandated dissemination of IST to ensure uniformity across strategic and non-strategic sectors.

She explained that under the Time Dissemination Project, the Department, in collaboration with CSIR-NPL and ISRO, is establishing an advanced infrastructure comprising five Regional Reference Standard Laboratories (RRSLs) in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad, and Guwahati. These centres are being equipped with atomic clocks and secure synchronisation systems using Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) to ensure millisecond to microsecond accuracy.

The Secretary emphasised that the forthcoming Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2025, will mandate synchronisation of all legal, administrative and commercial operations with IST, making India’s timekeeping infrastructure legally enforceable, digitally secure and globally benchmarked.

Her presentation outlined the risks posed by current reliance on foreign time sources, including cybersecurity vulnerabilities like spoofing and jamming. She further stated that the implementation of these rules would be a crucial step toward ensuring traceability, enhancing operational reliability, and fostering national time sovereignty. The initiative is a major step in building a trusted and standardised digital ecosystem across the country.

The Round Table Conference witnessed active participation from over 100 stakeholders representing a broad spectrum of sectors. These included senior officials from key Government Ministries and Departments as well as public sector companies, banks and business chambers.

Reader Comments

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Rahul K.

This is a much-needed initiative! I've faced issues with digital transactions where time discrepancies caused problems. Having one unified time standard will make life easier for common citizens like me. Jai Hind! 🇮🇳

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Priya M.

While the idea is good, I hope the implementation will be smooth. We Indians are used to flexible time (Indian Stretchable Time jokes aside). Will this affect cultural events and regional practices that follow different time calculations?

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Arjun S.

National security aspect is crucial. Relying on foreign time servers always made us vulnerable. With atomic clocks and our own infrastructure, we're becoming truly Atmanirbhar in timekeeping too! 👏

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Sunita R.

As a bank employee, I can see how this will help prevent frauds in transaction timestamps. But I hope they provide proper training to all sectors before implementation. The devil is in the details!

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Vikram J.

Interesting to see Bhubaneswar and Guwahati getting these labs. Usually everything is concentrated in metros. Good regional distribution for better accuracy across the country.

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Neha P.

Will this affect railway schedules? Sometimes trains run late by hours - hope this initiative helps improve punctuality. One can dream! 😅

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Karan D.

The cost aspect worries me. While the project is important, I hope taxpayer money is used judiciously. Maybe they could have partnered with existing institutions instead of building new labs.

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