In a historic step toward digital sovereignty and national security, the Government of India will soon enforce the use of Indian Standard Time (IST) in all legal, commercial, digital, and administrative contexts. The Indian Standard Time (Legal Metrology) Rules, 2025 will soon be notified, with the goal of transitioning away from reliance on foreign time sources and establishing a secure national unified time of reference using atomic clocks and indigenous protocols.
Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said as the Indian Standard Time (Legal Metrology) Rules, 2025 will be notified soon, this will institutionalize IST as the only official legal time in India. We will tackle digital discrepancies, cybercrime and national security by removing our reliance on foreign time sources i.e. GPS.
Aims and Objectives
• To ensure consistent and unified timekeeping within sectors using Indian Standard Time (IST).
• To decrease cyber-security risk exposure associated with foreign time resources.
• Ensure accurate billing, security during transactions, and timestamps that are traceable across digital infrastructure.
• Ensure time sovereignty within the nation, and enhance fairness and transparency.
Key Elements to the IST Mandate
The Indian Standard Time (Legal Metrology) Rules, 2025 will,
• Provide mandatory reference time across sectors.
• Prohibit and use of alternative sources of time, unless provided permission to do so.
• Be applied in transportation, telecom, financial markets, utilities, etc.
Time dissemination infrastructure.
- Five Regional Reference Standard Laboratories (RRSLs) in:
- Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad, and Guwahati
- Equipped with atomic clocks and secure synchronization systems.
- Uses Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP).
- Offers millisecond to microsecond level accuracy.
Coordinated by
- Department of Consumer Affairs
- CSIR-NPL (National Physical Laboratory)
- ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation)
Strategic Significance
- Reduces digital mismatches and investigation delays.
- Counters spoofing and jamming vulnerabilities in foreign time systems.
- Secures power grids, railways, financial systems, and communication networks.
- Improves fairness in billing and trust in digital transactions.
- Aligns with the Digital India and Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.
