NEW DELHI — Today, Pakistan became the first nation in South Asia to adopt daylight saving time, pushing clocks forward by one hour.
The three-month experiment is designed, as elsewhere, to cut energy costs by taking advantage of long summer days.
But what might make practical sense for Pakistan is yet another headache for a region that already clocks up more than its share of chronological confusion. For residents of South Asia, simply figuring out what time it is in the next country, let alone beyond that, can be an exercise in frustration.
Consider this: Pakistan lies west of India and is usually half an hour behind its political archrival. But by winding its clocks forward Saturday, Pakistan is now half an hour ahead of India. The situation seems a little absurd, like California being ahead of Nevada.
Or take India and its little neighbor Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi who crosses his country’s western border finds himself in India, whose time is set half an hour behind Bangladesh. If he goes in the opposite direction, across the eastern frontier, he finds himself in India yet again and still has to turn his watch back 30 minutes, even though the sun will rise earlier than it did when he was at home.
Dilip Ahuja, a professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, published a paper with two others in 2007 recommending that India adjust its own official time ahead half an hour. The country could shave at least 0.3 percent off its annual electricity consumption, a savings of $250 million, the study said.
Ahuja and his co-authors rule out splitting India into two time zones for east and west, although the country is big enough to accommodate it.
China insists on a single fixed time for the entire nation, despite spanning several potential time zones, for the sake of national unity, and India should stick to the same principle, Ahuja said.
It’s just that he hopes the Indian government will, out of simple pragmatism, take up his suggestion. It would be, he said, about time.
