India’s single time zone costs it roughly ₹29,000 crore every year!
India’s single time zone costs it roughly ₹29,000 crores every year! It’s not me saying this, but a 2019 research report claiming that India could save almost $4.2 billion annually by adopting 2 time zones.
Did you know? Australia, the 6th largest country, has 3 time zones. Russia, the largest country, has 11? France, which is not even among the largest countries, has 12 time zones?!
But, back in India, the world’s 7th largest country, how many time zones do we have? Only one! And this single time zone comes with many problems!
In Arunachal Pradesh, which is at the extreme eastern part of India, the sun rises and sets earlier than the western part of India, Gujarat!
Geographically, India is almost 3,000 km wide, which covers almost 2 different time zones. Which means a time difference of 2 hours!
Loss of Sleep – Schools & Offices start at more or less the same time in India. But, because the sun sets later in western India, people living in these regions get less sleep! This can lead to poor work efficiency & poor academic performance!
Now, we have another problem of electricity wastage! Sunrises early in the eastern parts of India compared to the west! But, because we follow a uniform time, offices & schools open too late in the east-from 8:30 am to 9 am! By this time, a lot of natural sunlight is wasted
In winters, this problem gets even worse. As the sun sets early, more electricity has to be consumed to keep life active during the later half of the day!
A single time zone has the following domino effects –
1) Loss of sleep, which leads to
2) Lack of productivity, which leads to
3) Poor education, which leads to
4) Lower wages for western India
5) Wastage of natural resources and extra usage of light for eastern India!
India’s official timekeepers themselves have suggested 2 time zones! ‘Creating 2 zones would accrue gains of 0.2% of its GDP annually or get an annual human capital gain of over $4.2bn, says an estimate’ Research named ‘Poor Sleep: Sunset Time and Human Capital Production