Making every second count: The creation of Indian Standard Time at Delhi’s NPL
The CSIR-National Physical Laboratory in Delhi is the official source of Indian Standard Time, which is now legally mandated for all official and commercial purposes in India. New regulations ensure that this time reference will be the sole standard starting in early 2027.
Why it matters
Standardizing time is essential for the legal and administrative synchronization of a nation's infrastructure and commercial activities.
Indian Standard Time (IST) is created at the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in a room the size of an office cubicle, on a sprawling Delhi campus, not far from where the Green Revolution took root. Created, not in the Einsteinian way of space and gravity doing mysterious things, nor in the pejorative way about Indian time being stretchable. Time here emerges as a consensus of a parliament of clocks.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in