‘One Nation, One Time’: India Plans Shift To Time Sovereignty With Rules Mandating IST In Legal, Administrative And Commercial Ops

India is preparing to legally enforce a unified timekeeping standard across all sectors—marking a strategic push towards time sovereignty.

At a Round Table Conference in New Delhi, the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi said 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.

At the conference, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi, emphasized on the strategic significance of the Time Dissemination Project being implemented by the Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with CSIR-NPL and ISRO.

He underscored that precise and uniform dissemination of IST across sectors such as financial markets, power grids, telecommunications, transportation and others are essential to ensuring fairness, accuracy and national security.

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

The five RRSLs are being set up in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad, and Guwahati.

These centers are being equipped with atomic clocks and secure synchronization systems using Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) to ensure millisecond to microsecond accuracy.

Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare said that the rules would make India’s timekeeping infrastructure legally enforceable, digitally secure and globally benchmarked.

Khare 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.

According to a statement by the Consumer Affairs Ministry, the Time Dissemination initiative is the result of sustained inter-ministerial coordination and technical consultations since 2018.

The ministry said that meetings were held with the Principal Scientific Adviser, Deputy NSA, Cabinet Secretariat and NSCS. 

Over 60 meetings have been held by the Department of Consumer Affairs, with extensive engagement with CSIR-NPL, ISRO and other key stakeholders.

This sustained engagement led to the formulation of the Draft Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2025, the ministry said.

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