Current Time in Delhi
India — Asia/Kolkata
About Time in Delhi
Delhi operates on India Standard Time (IANA: Asia/Kolkata) at UTC+5:30 year-round, the same timezone as all of India. IST is maintained by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in New Delhi, which houses India's primary atomic clock. India does not observe daylight saving time.
Delhi is 10 hours and 30 minutes ahead of New York during EST. It is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of London, 3 hours and 30 minutes behind Tokyo, and 2 hours and 30 minutes behind Singapore. At longitude 77.2 E, Delhi is closer to the geographic center of India's timezone than Mumbai, meaning solar noon occurs at about 12:20 PM IST — reasonably close to clock noon.
As India's capital, Delhi's IST timezone governs all government operations, parliamentary sessions, and national affairs. The Indian Parliament's sessions are scheduled in IST, and the Prime Minister's addresses are broadcast nationwide on IST. Delhi's position as the seat of government means that the city's working hours effectively set the pace for India's massive bureaucracy, with government offices typically operating from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM IST, Monday through Friday.
Time Facts
India's official time is maintained by the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi, which operates five cesium atomic clocks and synchronizes with UTC through satellite links — the institute has kept IST to within 20 nanoseconds of UTC.
Delhi's Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century astronomical observatory built by Maharaja Jai Singh II, contains massive stone instruments that can tell solar time to within 2 seconds — it was used as Delhi's official time reference before modern clocks.
India's Republic Day parade on January 26th begins at exactly 9:30 AM IST at Rajpath (now Kartavya Path) in Delhi, timed to coincide with optimal morning light and before the winter sun gets too high.
The Delhi Metro, one of the world's busiest, runs from approximately 5:00 AM to 11:40 PM IST, with trains arriving every 2-3 minutes during peak hours — its scheduling system uses GPS-synchronized clocks across all 250+ stations.
Business Hours
Standard business hours in Delhi are 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM IST (03:30-12:00 UTC), with government offices following a strict 9:00 AM start and many private businesses operating until 6:00 PM or later.