India Considering two time zones

The government of India has said it is “pro-actively” considering the matter of having two separate time zones in the country.
The issue was raised in the Lok Sabha by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member B Mahtab, who highlighted that there was a gap of nearly two hours in sunrise timings between the eastern and the western parts of the country.
“Sun rises at 4 am in Arunachal Pradesh while offices open at 10 am. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also done a study on this in the past,” Mahtab said.
He said some 2.7 billion units of electricity could be saved if there are two separate time zones and added that only the Centre can take a call on office timings.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government has taken Mahtab’s suggestion very “seriously”.