Just days before the 72nd Plenary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) starting from December 20 in Agartala, ARPAN Society, an association for research on people and nature has proposed a significant reform  over adoption of a separate time zone for India’s Northeastern states in its latest communication dated December 17, 2024.

ARPAN has appealed key stakeholders, including the Governors, Chief Ministers of the region, and the Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Jyotiraditya Scindia to discuss the matter at the 72nd NEC Plenary Session in Agartala, scheduled for December 20-21, 2024 and passing a resolution.

The ARPAN has advocated for advancing the daily schedule of Northeastern states by at least two hours relative to Indian Standard Time (IST). These proposals resound with a prior recommendation by the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), which suggested a dual time-zone system in India. CSIR-NPL’s framework proposed IST-I (UTC+5:30) for most of India and IST-II (UTC+6:30) for the Northeast and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Such a shift would better align with the Northeast’s unique geographical positioning and facilitate the more efficient use of daylight hours.

The society in its letter said that “endorsing the initiatives of the Centre and respective state governments for growth acceleration in Northeast, we found a missing link of optimum utilization of potential working hours in the region due to IST. The growth of Northeast could have been much better if we followed a separate working hour ahead of Allahabad time standard.”

“We are very much aware that all of you have been pressing for a separate Time Zone for Northeast for a long time but it has yet to yield any result. As a civil society think tank organization, ARPAN requests you to include the issue in upcoming 72nd Plenary session of NEC chaired by Home Minister Sir Amit Shah in presence of Minister for Development of Northeast Region, Jyotiraditya Scindia scheduled to come off on Dec 20-21, 2024 at Agartala,” said Dr Biswendu Bhattacharjee, secretary of ARPAN.

ARPAN in its letter added that geographically India extends 6807E to 97025E longitude with a spread of 29 degrees which amounts to a time difference of about 29 minutes and above. To be very specific, the difference in sunrise and sunset timings of Northeastern states and Delhi is an average of 1.30 hrs. In summer, the sun rises in Arunachal Pradesh at 4 am and in other states of the region around 4.40 am but in Delhi it's 6 am. Naturally, sunset is also earlier in the Northeast than in central and western parts of the country.

The longitudinal difference of the regions in India not only results in loss of sun-shining hours and potential working time but also creates problems relating to the biological clock, digestion and other health complications. There may be a few arguments against the separate time zone for India which houses a 143 crore population, multiple climate variations, transportation and communication, and so on; but as a developing region of the country, stated the letter and added NEC Plenary here has offered an opportunity to discuss the matter in detail and resolve unitedly to move further.

“Scientifically, the first five hours of the day are considered as most valuable and potential in terms of work output, satisfaction, and happiness. Unfortunately, following the IST we shall start our day’s activity including business, public work, schools, and colleges at least 5-6 hours after the sun rises and it continues two hours after sunset. The practice made our brilliant workforce fatigued, under productive, and dissatisfied, which affected the family and social life of the individual and became counterproductive in public order,” said Bhattacharjee.

He said that complying with the Paris Agreement at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where India committed to achieving a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and removals, essentially aiming for net zero emissions, optimum use of sunlight is one of the major options left with us. Leaving aside challenges and barriers, a separate Time Zone will help the people to save conventional energy, and ensure maximum use of solar energy.

ARPAN requested the NEC to resolve a move for a separate time for the region to accelerate the pace of development in the August forum of NEC - the main growth engine of Northeast. Also, Northeastern states need to decide to start the day, offices, and educational institutions at 9 am during winter and 8.30 am in the summer and close by 5 pm and 4.30 pm respectively with an hour of leisure in between the working hours that give a big push to the development index of Northeast.