Government notifies ‘One Nation, One Time’ rules for uniform use of IST
New framework seeks to provide a legally recognised and traceable time reference for digital systems and critical infrastructure
The government has notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, establishing Indian Standard Time as the common, legally recognised and traceable time reference across the country.
The rules, which support the government’s “One Nation, One Time” initiative, will come into force 180 days after their publication in the Official Gazette.
They create a framework governing the generation, maintenance, dissemination and use of IST, with the aim of ensuring that critical sectors and digital networks operate using a uniform and reliable time standard.
Precise time synchronisation and dependable timestamps are essential for telecommunications, banking transactions, digital payments, power grids, transport networks, data centres, government information systems and other critical services, the government said.
The measure is also expected to strengthen cybersecurity. Accurate timestamps help investigators correlate activity across different systems during cyber incidents and are necessary for effective security monitoring.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team’s 2023 information security guidelines for government entities recommend that information and communications technology systems be synchronised with standard time sources, including those maintained by the National Physical Laboratory and the National Informatics Centre.
To expand the geographical reach and availability of traceable time services, the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Department of Legal Metrology have jointly established secondary timescales at five Regional Reference Standard Laboratories.
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The facilities are located in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad and Guwahati. Their timescales remain continuously traceable to the national IST reference maintained by CSIR-NPL, creating a distributed system for disseminating standard time.
CSIR-NPL also provides IST traceability to ISRO for the Navigation with Indian Constellation system. This enables the satellite-based transmission of Indian Standard Time and improves the reach and resilience of the country’s timing services.
IST can be distributed through network-based technologies such as Network Time Protocol and Precision Time Protocol, as well as through NavIC. High-precision optical fibre technologies, including White Rabbit, are also being tested.
The government said the distributed architecture would serve users ranging from conventional ICT networks to specialised applications requiring highly precise time and frequency synchronisation.
While the new rules provide the legal basis for adopting a common national time reference, the infrastructure developed by CSIR-NPL, NIC, ISRO and the regional laboratory network will support its implementation.
The Legal Metrology Department under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs will serve as the regulatory and enforcement authority. CSIR-NPL, India’s national metrology institute, will provide the scientific basis and traceability for IST.
With IANS inputs