India Needs Two Time Zones to Electrify Its Future

As policymakers in New Delhi put their heads together to deal with the long-term impact on India’s economy from a prolonged Iran war, they should stare deep into their teacups. The leaves at the bottom may hold the clue to a simple but powerful mitigating strategy: Respect the sun.

In 1906, the subcontinent’s British administrators forced clocks to chime in sync; Greenwich Mean Time plus 5:30 hours became the local standard. It was a poor compromise that squandered the morning light in the east and forced the west to extend its workday long into an expensive, energy-intensive evening. Colonial trading hubs — Calcutta in the east, and Bombay in the west1— tried to retain their own separate times. But after India’s 1947 independence, they, too, fell in line for the sake of nation-building.