02-13-2019, 09:31 PM
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47168359
India's single time zone is a legacy of British rule, and is thought of as a symbol of unity. But not everyone thinks the Indian Standard Time (IST) is a good idea.
Here's why.
India stretches 3,000km (1,864 miles) from east to west, spanning roughly 30 degrees longitude. This corresponds with a two-hour difference in mean solar times - the passage of time based on the position of the sun in the sky.
The US equivalent would be New York and Utah sharing one time zone. Except that in this case, it also affects more than a billion people - hundreds of millions of whom live in poverty.
In a new paper, Maulik Jagnani, an economist at Cornell University, argues that a single time zone leads to a decline in quality of sleep, especially of poor children. This, he says, ends up reducing the quality of their education.
Yeah, if we look at this time zone map, we see that the whole of India is on GMT+5:30, but parts of the country would fit better into GMT+6 or GMT+7.
Iit's the same situation in China - but perhaps even more extreme there. The entirety of China is on GMT+8 - even though western parts of the country would fit better into GMT+6. (This also means that, when crossing the border from China into India, there's a 2½-hour time difference !)
It'd certainly make sense for eastern parts of India to move an hour forward; however, this has been debated for in India for many years, and nothing has happened - so, I don't expect anything will change any time soon.
India's single time zone is a legacy of British rule, and is thought of as a symbol of unity. But not everyone thinks the Indian Standard Time (IST) is a good idea.
Here's why.
India stretches 3,000km (1,864 miles) from east to west, spanning roughly 30 degrees longitude. This corresponds with a two-hour difference in mean solar times - the passage of time based on the position of the sun in the sky.
The US equivalent would be New York and Utah sharing one time zone. Except that in this case, it also affects more than a billion people - hundreds of millions of whom live in poverty.
In a new paper, Maulik Jagnani, an economist at Cornell University, argues that a single time zone leads to a decline in quality of sleep, especially of poor children. This, he says, ends up reducing the quality of their education.
Yeah, if we look at this time zone map, we see that the whole of India is on GMT+5:30, but parts of the country would fit better into GMT+6 or GMT+7.
Iit's the same situation in China - but perhaps even more extreme there. The entirety of China is on GMT+8 - even though western parts of the country would fit better into GMT+6. (This also means that, when crossing the border from China into India, there's a 2½-hour time difference !)
It'd certainly make sense for eastern parts of India to move an hour forward; however, this has been debated for in India for many years, and nothing has happened - so, I don't expect anything will change any time soon.
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