New Delhi, Jan. 27 -- The Department of Consumer Affairs has announced comprehensive draft rules mandating the adoption of Indian Standard Time across all sectors, collaborating with the National Physical Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation to establish a high-precision timekeeping framework.

The proposed Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2025, aim to disseminate IST with millisecond to microsecond accuracy through five Legal Metrology laboratories nationwide.

The initiative addresses a critical gap in India's technological infrastructure, where many Telecom and Internet Service Providers currently rely on foreign time sources such as GPS.

The new framework emphasises national security and operational effi...