Time difference between Los Angeles and Delhi

The gap is not the same all year

Every converter gives one number for this pair. That number is right for most of the year and wrong for part of it, because Los Angeles goes forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November and Delhi does not change its clocks.

Delhi stays put all year while Los Angeles moves, so a meeting fixed in Delhi's calendar shifts by an hour twice a year at Los Angeles's end.

About Los Angeles and Delhi

Los Angeles is UTC−8 in winter and UTC−7 from March to November. California voted in 2018 to move to permanent daylight saving and has not been able to: the change needs an act of Congress, which has not come.

India runs a single zone at UTC+5:30 across nearly 30 degrees of longitude, so sunrise in the far northeast can be before five in the morning by the clock. Proposals to split the country in two have been made repeatedly and rejected each time.

What 12 hours 30 minutes actually costs you

There is no shared working hour at all. Nine to five in Los Angeles is 9:30 PM to 5:30 AM in Delhi. Somebody has to be outside their working day, and the only question is who — so the useful thing is to decide that once rather than rediscover it every time.

The least painful slot is 5:00 PM in Los Angeles, which is 5:30 AM in Delhi. That is 3.5 hours outside somebody's working day and it is the smallest that gap gets — every other hour of the clock costs more.

At 12 hours 30 minutes the two are far enough apart that the date stops matching. Midday in Los Angeles is 12:30 AM the next day in Delhi. "Tomorrow morning" means different things to the two of you, and a deadline given without a date attached will be missed by one side or the other.

When they can both be at their desks

Nine-to-five in Los Angeles and nine-to-five in Delhi do not overlap at all. With 12 hours 30 minutes between them, one side is always outside working hours, and the practical question is which side takes the early start or the late finish rather than when to meet.

Los Angeles

Delhi

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How far apart Los Angeles and Delhi are

The shortest path over the Earth's surface between the two is 12,860 km (7,991 miles). Flown along that line, an airliner at cruising speed takes roughly 16 hours in the air — actual routings add to it, and whether a nonstop service exists depends on the airlines rather than the distance.

Over that distance you cross 12 hours 30 minutes of clock, which is where jet lag comes from: the body shifts by about an hour a day, so 12 hours 30 minutes takes most people 13 days or so to absorb. Flying east to Delhi is the harder direction — you lose the hours and have to fall asleep earlier than your body wants.

Los Angeles to Delhi, hour by hour

On the usual gap of 12 hours 30 minutes.

Frequently asked questions