A line from Victor Hugo’s The Future of Man is often paraphrased as “Nobody can stop an idea whose time has come.” India has now reached a level of economic, educational, technological, and logistical maturity to embrace the idea of having two time zones. Two recent events provide impetus to this proposition. At the Rising Northeast Investors Summit 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “ ... EAST is not just a direction but a vision — Empower, Act, Strengthen and Transform — which refines the policy framework for the region”. The NITI Aayog, at a meeting to discuss Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat @2047, underscored the need for the states to “leverage their unique geographic and demographic advantages while focusing on human development, economic growth, sustainability, technology, and governance reforms.”

Such visions support two time zones for the country: Early sunrise in the eastern and northeastern states is a resource that these regions can’t unfortunately leverage, thanks to the adoption of the Indian Standard Time (IST) as the sole time zone for the country in the early 1950s.

India’s longitudinal expanse translates to a gap of almost two hours between its eastern-most and western-most tips. Civilian meteorology may be impacted by 1.5 hours. Historically, Calcutta Time was one of the three time zones established in British India in 1884. That year, India got two regional time zones — Calcutta was to use the 90th meridian east and Bombay the 75th meridian east. IST was determined as five hours,........

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