IST — India Standard Time
See how India Standard Time works, where it is used, and how to convert IST to other time zones accurately.
Meaning and usage
IST stands for India Standard Time and is used across India. It stays fixed at UTC+5:30 nationwide with no regional daylight saving changes.
No daylight saving time
India Standard Time does not observe DST, so the offset remains UTC+5:30 all year. This page tracks rule stability and historical timezone data from the IANA timezone database.
Convert IST worldwide
Compare IST with other time zones using the visual time grid and hour-by-hour tables. Plan meetings, export events as ICS, or send times to Google Calendar and Gmail.
How to Convert IST to Other Time Zones
Looking for Irish Standard Time? See /time-converter/ist-ireland-time-zone.
Looking for Israel Standard Time? See /time-converter/ist-israel-time-zone.
Open the IST converter page: Visit
https://www.xconvert.com/time-converter/ist-time-zoneto open the India Standard Time comparison view with IST already loaded on the grid. This is useful when you are planning a call with teams in Bengaluru, Mumbai, or Delhi and need to compare India Standard Time against client or vendor locations before sending a meeting invite.Add comparison cities: Click + Add City and search for the cities you want to compare against India Standard Time. A practical setup for remote work is to add major partner locations used for outsourcing, software delivery, finance, or customer support coordination, then place them under the IST row so you can see overlapping work hours on the same 24-hour timeline.
Select a meeting window on the grid: Click Select to enter selection mode, then drag across the India Standard Time row to highlight a time range in purple; use the left and right handles to fine-tune the start and end time, or drag the center to move the whole block. This works well for choosing a Bengaluru engineering standup, a Mumbai operations handoff, or a Delhi client review, because the colored grid immediately shows whether your selected IST slot falls into work hours, evening, or night for every compared city.
Export and share the result: Once a range is selected, use the export options to download an ICS file, send it to Google Calendar, open it in Gmail, Copy to clipboard, or create a Share link. That makes it easy to send a confirmed India Standard Time meeting window to distributed teams so each person sees the appointment in their own local calendar without manually converting UTC+5:30.
About India Standard Time (IST)
IST (India Standard Time, UTC+5:30) is the standard time used in India. It is a single national time standard, so businesses, government offices, schools, transport planning, and remote teams across the country coordinate on the same UTC+5:30 offset.
India Standard Time is used in India, including major cities such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. If you are scheduling across these cities, there is no domestic time-zone difference to account for, which simplifies nationwide meeting planning, customer support coverage, and internal operations.
India Standard Time does not observe daylight saving time and has no counterpart. That means IST remains fixed at UTC+5:30 throughout the entire year, which is especially useful for recurring international calls because the India side of the schedule does not shift seasonally.
IST and Daylight Saving Time
India Standard Time (IST) does not observe DST and has no counterpart. There are no seasonal clock changes, no switch to a summer time variant, and no annual transition dates to track for India.
For practical scheduling, this means India Standard Time stays at UTC+5:30 every day of the year. If you run recurring meetings with teams in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, or Mumbai, the IST time stays constant even when other countries move their clocks forward or backward.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does IST stand for?
India Standard Time (IST) stands for the standard time used in India. Its fixed offset is UTC+5:30, and it applies across major Indian cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
Is IST the same as GMT?
India Standard Time is not the same as GMT. IST is UTC+5:30, so it is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT/UTC, which matters when scheduling international meetings, support shifts, or travel plans involving India.
Which cities use IST?
India Standard Time is used in major Indian cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. Because all of these cities follow the same UTC+5:30 standard, there is no need to adjust for different local time zones when coordinating work or travel within India.
What is the UTC offset for IST?
India Standard Time uses a UTC offset of UTC+5:30. This half-hour offset is important when converting meeting times, booking cross-border calls, or aligning global team schedules with offices in India.
When does IST change?
India Standard Time does not change during the year. It does not observe daylight saving time, so it remains on UTC+5:30 year-round with no clock changes and no switch to any alternate time standard.
Is IST India Standard Time or Irish Standard Time?
On this page, IST means India Standard Time, which is UTC+5:30. IST can also refer to Irish Standard Time, which has a separate page at /time-converter/ist-ireland-time-zone, so it is important to choose the correct meaning before converting times.
Does India have more than one time zone or a daylight saving version of IST?
India Standard Time is the standard time used in India, and it does not have a daylight saving counterpart. For scheduling purposes, that means the same UTC+5:30 time applies in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai throughout the year.