Daylight Saving Time

In News 

• Recently, the United States Senate unanimously passed lawmaking daylight saving time (DST) permanent, scrapping the biannual practise of putting clocks forward and back coinciding with the arrival and departure of winter.

Why have Daylight Saving Time?

• DST is the practise of resetting clocks ahead by an hour in spring, and behind by an hour in autumn (or fall). 
  • During these months, countries that follow this system get an extra hour of daylight in the evening.
• Because the spring to fall cycle is opposite in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, DST lasts from March to October/November in Europe and the US, and from September/October to April in New Zealand and Australia.
• India does not follow daylight saving time. The countries near the Equator do not experience high variations in daytime hours between seasons.
• Beginning: 
  • In April 1916, during World War I, Germany and Austria introduced DST to minimise the use of artificial lighting. 
    • It gradually caught on in many countries. In the EU, clocks in the 28 member states move forward on the last Sunday in March and fall back on the last Sunday in October. India does not follow daylight saving time.
    • DST is currently followed by some 70 countries twice a year.

Significance

• DST is meant to save energy and it means a longer evening daytime.
• Individuals will complete their daily work routines an hour earlier, and that extra hour of daylight means — or is supposed to mean — a lower consumption of energy.

• There is also a disadvantage of DST which includes disruption of the body clock or circadian rhythm.

Source: IE