Celebrate a Solution

Global warming is a serious threat to planet earth and the international community is now united to save the world from its adverse effects. To stop global warming, countries of the developed and developing world need to do everything possible including using 'New and Renewable Energy' and reducing carbon intensity without compromising on growth. Coal is the most important fuel for India’s power sector as it is the source of more than 50 per cent of generating capacity. Conserving energy includes reduction in transmission losses and reducing power consumption by judicious use of electricity both for industrial and domestic use. As India’s population is over a billion, even a small reduction in the use of power for domestic use by every citizen would result in a very large saving of energy. Thus we will also reduce our emission levels, as we would be burning less coal. Daylight Saving Time (DST); also called summer time is practiced in some countries by advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. In these countries clocks are adjusted forward by one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. However, Indian Standard Time does not use Daylight Saving Time. One of the goals of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, primarily the use of electricity. Based on the principle of DST, it is proposed to reduce energy consumption by changing the Indian Standard Time (IST). Presently IST is 5.5 hours (5 hours 30 minutes) ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+5.5) and is based on the local time at longitude 72.5 degrees East which passes through Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. We can achieve this by advancing IST by half an hour to 6 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+6). For a vast country like India with its land mostly located in the tropics, we could use the time zone of GMT+6 continuously throughout the year, instead of the yearly change during summer. By implementing this ‘time change’ every house would save on energy as the lights would be kept on after sunset for less time. This could be explained by the following example. Let us take the case of a young executive, Mr. Bharat Nagarkar living in Nagpur, where the sun rises say, at 0600 hrs IST (GMT+5.5) on 31st March 2010. He, like the majority of others across the world likes waking up at sunrise time, i.e. at 0600 hrs (GMT+5.5). Presuming that we have changed IST to GMT+6 on 1st April 2010, the sunrise would now be at 0630 hrs GMT+6. Bharat and most others like him who like to wake up at sunrise, will now be waking up at 0630 hrs GMT+6. Since most households sparingly use electricity for lighting during morning hours, there would be no appreciable change in consumption during the morning hours. Now let us see what happens in the evening. On 31st March 2010, say in Nagpur, the sunset time is at 1830 hrs. Bharat, like most others has a habit of going to bed ‘well before midnight’. So on a normal working day, after a busy and productive day at the office, he spends quality time at home with his wife and child, watches TV, reads for about an hour and goes to sleep at 2330 hrs IST (GMT+5.5). He and his family therefore use their home lighting from 1830 to 2330 hrs, for 5 hrs. As we change over to the new IST, sunset time on 1st April 2010 would be at 1900 hrs GMT+6. Bharat and his family would be continuing their daily routine and would go to bed as usual, ‘well before midnight’. They would now be using electricity for their home lighting from 1900 to 2330 hrs, i.e. for 4 hrs 30 minutes. Thus they would be saving about 10% on lighting every day, year after year. To keep the above example simple, I have not accounted for the complexities of sidereal time or the small time difference in sunrise/sunset each day. Like most middle class families in India, Bharat as well as those in other professions including agriculture make use of home appliances like televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and microwaves. Therefore the power saved on lighting in households as well as in public places (for street lighting etc.) across India would translate to about 5% of the total energy consumed. When we take into account the power used by industrial, commercial and other sectors, the overall savings may work out to less than 5 percent of India’s total power consumption. But for a country with a population of more than a billion consuming over 500 billion kWh of electricity each year, it would translate to atleast 10 to 20 billion kWh saving every year. Statisticians would be able to give us the exact figures. In turn, we will save on the expenditure on coal, conserve our natural resources and make an enormous contribution to our war against global warming. For a smooth and efficient change over to +6GMT, it will require meticulous planning by all agencies including the central and state governments, railways, airlines, shipping and the private sector. I am of the view that too much time should not be spent on discussing this proposal by large committees or groups. Instead, a small team of experts appointed by the Govt. of India should analyse the pros and cons of this proposal. If found suitable, the proposed ‘time change’ be implemented as early as possible. It requires no expenditure and it is not an impossible task. But we as a nation have to alter our negative mindset to 'any change', and say to ourselves, ‘Yes we can, and we will!' You may recollect that our late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had the courage to implement the five day (working) week quickly without wasting time on discussion. Let us try this out for a year, and review it thereafter to see its benefits to the nation. While sailing through many countries and oceans of the world, we mariners are required to reset our ship’s master clock to different time zones almost every day. Let us reset India’s master clock (IST) just once, and reap rich benefits by conserving energy as well as reducing emission levels. For Mother India and Planet Earth, it would make a world of difference.