'One Nation, One Time'; India's timekeeping revolution: NavIC to synchronize time nationwide

NEW DELHI: India is set to unify time nationwide with precision down to the second. Most people currently rely on the time displayed on mobile phones, which is based on the American GPS system. The new initiative aims to synchronize time exclusively using India’s indigenous navigation system. At present, differences ranging from seconds to minutes can be observed in various time standards, such as radio time and railway time.

A draft of the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Act has been published. This law mandates Indian Standard Time (IST) as the sole time reference for legal, administrative, commercial, and official records.

The initiative is a collaboration between India's indigenous navigation system, NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and ISRO. It will enable precise time usage across key sectors such as telecommunications, navigation, power grids, banking, and digital governance.

All government offices, public institutions, and private organizations will be required to synchronize with IST using Network Time Protocol (NTP) or Precision Time Protocol (PTP).

Scientific, astronomical, and navigation purposes will be granted exceptions with prior approval. Violations by unauthorized users will attract penalties. Public feedback on the draft legislation is open until February 14 on the Department of Consumer Affairs website.

Benefits of an Indigenous System:

• A precise and reliable timekeeping system owned by India, reducing dependency on foreign systems.
• Advantageous for sectors such as power grids, telecommunications, banking, defence, and transportation.
• Capable of countering cyber-attacks that occur within seconds.

Satellites and atomic clocks for timekeeping

The NavIC system comprises 11 satellites and multiple atomic clocks at various centres. It will be linked with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Faridabad, near Delhi. The time from NavIC will be shared via an optical fiber link with atomic clocks at four centres: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, and Guwahati.

Atomic clocks at the Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar centres are fully operational, and the NavIC-NPL link has been successfully tested.

Digital devices like smartwatches, smartphones, and laptops will display time based on the atomic clocks at these centers.

What is an Atomic Clock?
Atomic clocks are extraordinarily accurate, operating based on the movements of atoms. Their margin of error is just one second in 100 million years.