India Embarks on Ambitious 'One Nation, One Time' Policy to Achieve Technological Self-Reliance and National Synchronization

New Delhi: In a groundbreaking move towards technological self-reliance and national synchronization, the Government of India has officially launched the 'One Nation, One Time' policy. The ambitious initiative aims to introduce a uniform application of Indian Standard Time (IST) across all sectors, marking a significant shift away from dependence on foreign satellite systems like GPS.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi announced the policy during the National Conference on Time Dissemination held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. The move is expected to bring India closer to achieving its vision of becoming a digitally sovereign nation.

The 'One Nation, One Time' policy has far-reaching implications across various sectors:

• Electricity Grids: The synchronized time standard will prevent blackouts and improve energy efficiency nationwide.
• Telecommunications: Flawless time synchronization will eliminate latency issues and call drops, improving overall network reliability.
• Banking System: Accurate time stamps, accurate to less than 0.1 milliseconds, will drastically reduce the risk of cyber fraud and transaction manipulation.
• Defense and Space: Strategic missions such as space launches, satellite operations, and military defense exercises will benefit from ultra-precise time references, enhancing national security and mission success rates.
• Stock Market Operations: The unified clock system will prevent arbitrage risks and market manipulation due to time lags.

The policy is set for a phased rollout from FY26, with gradual adoption across sectors to ensure a smooth transition without operational disruptions. Key industries such as power, telecom, banking, defense, and financial markets are among the first to adopt this high-precision timing system.

By relying on India's indigenous NavIC Navigation Satellite System and National Physical Laboratory's (NPL) atomic clocks, the country is making significant strides towards breaking its technological dependency on foreign systems. This move will reduce the expected synchronization discrepancy to less than 0.1 milliseconds, putting India's digital infrastructure among the most precise in the world.

With this ambitious initiative, the Government of India is taking a pivotal step towards achieving its vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) in the digital domain.