The Union government said on Saturday it has commissioned a demonstration network that uses White Rabbit precision timing technology to distribute a secure, tamper-resistant national time signal, as the country pushes to reduce dependence on foreign timing sources for critical infrastructure.
Minister for Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi launched the network last week at the Regional Reference Standard Laboratory in Bengaluru, a joint project of the Department of Consumer Affairs, the government-run CSIR-National Physical Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation.
High-Precision Synchronisation For Critical Sectors
The system disseminates Indian Standard Time, traceable to national time-keeping authority UTC (NPLI), using Precision Time Protocol-based White Rabbit technology. The ministry said this offers highly accurate synchronisation for sectors including banking, telecommunications, power grids, transportation and digital governance.
Working alongside CSIR-NPL, ISRO, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the National Stock Exchange and state-run telecom operator BSNL, the ministry also completed a verification test of secure time transmission between the Bengaluru laboratory and NSE's Chennai facility.
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Part Of Broader 'One Nation, One Time' Push
Joshi had earlier visited ISRO's Bengaluru headquarters on July 16 to review progress on the wider Indian Standard Time Dissemination Project, which falls under the government's One Nation, One Time initiative. He said a trusted, indigenous national time source was becoming a critical piece of digital infrastructure, one that would strengthen consumer protection, support fair trade, bolster cyber resilience and improve reliability across financial markets, telecommunications and power systems.
Joshi said the project reflected the government's broader push for technological self-reliance under its Viksit Bharat vision, and would help reduce India's dependence on foreign timing sources while positioning the country among leaders in precision time dissemination. Nidhi Khare, secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs, said the initiative, combined with ongoing reforms to legal metrology rules, would strengthen consumer confidence, ease business operations and support India's digital transformation.
(With PTI inputs)
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