What time is it in India?
Quick answer
India uses Indian Standard Time (IST), which is UTC+5:30, across the entire country and all year, with no daylight saving time. The live clock below shows the current time in India.
India (IST)
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Why is India’s time zone 30 minutes off?
Most time zones differ from UTC by whole hours, but India sits at 5 hours 30 minutes. The reason is geography: the country is wide, and a single clock was set at the halfway point. IST is based on the 82.5° east meridian, which runs close to the city of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, roughly through the middle of India.
Each 15 degrees of longitude equals one hour, so 82.5° works out to exactly 5.5 hours ahead of Greenwich.
One time zone for a huge country
India is about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) wide from west to east. Using a single time zone means the sun rises nearly two hours earlier in the far northeast, in states like Arunachal Pradesh, than in Gujarat in the west. People in the northeast have long debated a separate time zone so that daylight hours match the working day better, but India has kept one official time.
India time vs other places
| Place | Difference from India |
|---|---|
| London | India is 5.5 hours ahead (4.5 in British summer) |
| New York | India is 10.5 hours ahead (9.5 in US summer) |
| Dubai | India is 1.5 hours ahead |
| Tokyo | India is 3.5 hours behind |
Because India doesn’t change its clocks, the gap with Europe and North America shrinks by an hour whenever those places move to summer time.
Speaking of Australia, it has several time zones, including half-hour ones. See what time it is in Australia.
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