Time difference between New York 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 New York 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 New York moves, so a meeting fixed in Delhi's calendar shifts by an hour twice a year at New York's end.

About New York and Delhi

New York is UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 from March to November, and it changes clocks on different weekends from Europe — a fortnight in March and a week in autumn when the transatlantic gap is an hour off what everyone expects.

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 9 hours 30 minutes actually costs you

There is no shared working hour at all. Nine to five in New York is 6:30 PM to 2:30 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 8:00 AM in New York, which is 5:30 PM in Delhi. That is 1.5 hours outside somebody's working day and it is the smallest that gap gets — every other hour of the clock costs more.

At 9 hours 30 minutes the two are far enough apart that the date stops matching. Midday in New York is 9:30 PM the same day in Delhi, but the ends of the working day do cross. "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 New York and nine-to-five in Delhi do not overlap at all. With 9 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.

New York

Delhi

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How far apart New York and Delhi are

The shortest path over the Earth's surface between the two is 11,755 km (7,304 miles). Flown along that line, an airliner at cruising speed takes roughly 14 hours 40 minutes 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 9 hours 30 minutes of clock, which is where jet lag comes from: the body shifts by about an hour a day, so 9 hours 30 minutes takes most people 10 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.

New York to Delhi, hour by hour

On the usual gap of 9 hours 30 minutes.

Frequently asked questions