Time Zone

Indian Standard Time - IST is Five and a Half hours ahead of UTC / GMT. India has no Daylight Saving Time (DST) although the country spans more than 2000 Km East to West. Tea gardens in Assam have historically followed an informal 'Tea Garden Time', one hour ahead of IST, to make better use of daylight. IST is defined as the local time at 82.5° E longitude, passing through Mirzapur near Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh. The 5:30 hours difference with London Time (GMT) gives rise to a curious phenomenon for the British tourist. If you flip your analog clock and read the time off, you will get roughly the current IST from a watch showing GMT.

All India Radio, Doordarshan the Government TV channel announce the time at regular intervals.