National News

Indian Standard Time Rules

September 1 , 2026 13 hrs 0 min 22 0

The Department of Consumer Affairs notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, making Indian Standard Time (IST), UTC+5:30, the mandatory time reference for legal, administrative, commercial and official purposes in India.
CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPLI), New Delhi maintains UTC(NPLI), the national time scale used for official IST.
Official IST will be disseminated through Regional Reference Standards Laboratories and NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation).
Telecom, digital payments and power-grid systems must synchronise with IST using Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP).
The rules will come into force 180 days after Gazette publication, around March 2027, with penalties for non-compliance under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009.