Why your phone shows the same time in New Delhi and Colombo
India sets its civil time by the 82.5°E meridian, a line that cuts through Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. Sri Lanka sets its civil time independently. Both land on an offset five and a half hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The clocks match. The laws do not.
India enforces its standard under the Indian Standard Time Act and the Legal Metrology Act. Sri Lanka maintains its own legislation. The IANA time zone database keeps them in separate drawers: Asia/Kolkata for India, Asia/Colombo for Sri Lanka.
For a call between the two capitals, dial at the hour your calendar shows. No mental arithmetic. If your screen reads 14:30 in New Delhi, it reads 14:30 in Colombo.
Book flights without a time zone calculator
Airlines publish all schedules in local time. Because the two countries share an offset, a 10:00 departure from New Delhi lands in Colombo with no clock change to factor in. Just add the flight duration.
Book phone calls the same way. A calendar entry for 11:00 IST is 11:00 SLST. Dial straight through.
Banking hours start at different times by choice, not by zone. Sri Lankan banks open at 09:00. Indian banks open at 10:00. The gap is business practice, not a time difference.
The Colombo Stock Exchange trades during Sri Lankan business hours. Overlap with Indian market hours on the National Stock Exchange and BSE, 09:15 to 15:30 IST, is identical to the clock.
The decade Sri Lanka jumped one hour ahead
From 1996 to 2006, Sri Lanka moved its standard offset to six hours ahead of UTC. That put Colombo one hour ahead of New Delhi. A 14:30 meeting in India meant a 15:30 meeting on the island.
The government framed the shift as an energy-saving measure: push daylight into the evening, cut electricity demand for lighting. It was not a seasonal experiment. Sri Lanka moved the clocks forward by half an hour and left them there for ten years.
Airlines, banks, and businesses that operated across the Palk Strait had to track two offsets on the subcontinent. A flight that takes under four hours suddenly required a clock adjustment. Old correspondence from that window still catches people out.
In 2006, Sri Lanka reverted to the shared offset. The energy savings had not justified the friction. Business groups and carriers pushed hard for the return. Since then, the country has stayed at five and a half hours ahead of UTC with no daylight saving time and no announced plans to move again.
Skip Asia/Kolkata for Sri Lankan locations
Developers and system administrators: never map Colombo to Asia/Kolkata. The current offset matches, but the zones are separate. If Sri Lanka changes its offset again, your application will serve the wrong time.
Use Asia/Colombo for every location in Sri Lanka. The IANA database stores the full 1996 to 2006 shift under that identifier. Applications that process past dates need the correct historical offset.
| Zone | Identifier | Offset | DST |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | Asia/Kolkata |
UTC+5:30 | None |
| Sri Lanka | Asia/Colombo |
UTC+5:30 | None |
What time does the sun rise in New Delhi?
Daylight hours shift across the year even when the clock does not. Plan outdoor meetings and calls that need good light around these local times for New Delhi.
On the March equinox, 20 March 2026, sunrise at 06:26, sunset at 18:32. Twelve hours and six minutes of daylight.
On the June solstice, 21 June 2026, sunrise at 05:23, sunset at 19:21. Thirteen hours and fifty-eight minutes of daylight.
On the September equinox, 22 September 2026, sunrise at 06:08, sunset at 18:19. Twelve hours and ten minutes of daylight.
On the December solstice, 21 December 2026, sunrise at 07:09, sunset at 17:28. Ten hours and nineteen minutes of daylight.
When are India's public holidays in 2026 and 2027?
Schedule deliveries, payments, and meetings around these dates. Government offices shut. Banks close. Liquidity thins.
2026 - Republic Day: Monday 26 January - Holi: Wednesday 4 March - Eid al-Fitr: Saturday 21 March - Ram Navami: Thursday 26 March - Mahavira's Birthday: Tuesday 31 March - Good Friday: Friday 3 April - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Birthday: Tuesday 14 April - Buddha Purnima: Friday 1 May - Eid al-Adha: Wednesday 27 May - Ashura: Friday 26 June - Independence Day: Saturday 15 August - Prophet's Birthday: Wednesday 26 August - Janmashtami (Vaishnava): Friday 4 September - Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday: Friday 2 October - Dussehra: Tuesday 20 October - Diwali (Deepavali): Sunday 8 November - Guru Nanak's Birthday: Tuesday 24 November - Christmas: Friday 25 December
2027 - Republic Day: Tuesday 26 January - Maha Shivaratri: Saturday 6 March - Eid al-Fitr (estimated): Wednesday 10 March - Holi: Monday 22 March - Good Friday: Friday 26 March - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Birthday: Wednesday 14 April - Ram Navami: Thursday 15 April - Mahavira's Birthday: Sunday 18 April - Eid al-Adha (estimated): Monday 17 May - Buddha Purnima: Thursday 20 May - Ashura (estimated): Wednesday 16 June - Independence Day: Sunday 15 August - Prophet's Birthday (estimated): Sunday 15 August - Janmashtami (Vaishnava): Wednesday 25 August - Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday: Saturday 2 October - Dussehra: Saturday 9 October - Diwali (Deepavali): Friday 29 October - Guru Nanak's Birthday: Sunday 14 November - Christmas: Saturday 25 December