Hey quick…
What’s the name of the Time Zone in Mumbai (Bombay), India?
I know I’m in the Pacific Time zone. How about Mumbai?
Thanks Dopes!
Well, in Windows, they are GMT +05:30, Calcutta, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi
I don’t know whether they have a specific name (particularly since they are adjusted 1/2 hour off a standard zone). Even Hindunet.org only gives it by a collection of cities, rather than by a name.
(And Pacific time is GMT -08:00.)
You may find this article by Cecil Adams interesting:
Sorry, I know that wasn’t a direct answer to your question, but it goes into some detail about how and why India is half an hour off most of the world. Just thought you may find it interesting.
The time zone will also have an alpha designator using the phonetic alphabet. UTC/GMT is also refered to as “Zulu”. GMT + 1 would be “Alpha”, GMT + 2 “Bravo” and so on, through the alphabet (skipping the letter J and one other). Where a time zone falls on the half hour, in this case GMT + 5:30 then the letters of the hours bracketing the time zone are used, thus GMT + 5:30 becomes Echo/Foxtrot. In Darwin we are GMT + 9:30 or India/Kilo (remembering J or Juliet is ommitted).
Skogcat , just curious, where is it that GMT is converted to letters and then used? It would seem to me that this is one more needless step that adds to confusion.
Of course, I can see some general benefits (country X is in time zone N - you know that they are almost halfway around the world from you. But you accomplish the same thing by saying “Bolivia”).
And what about the truly off-kilter countries? When I was in Nepal I remember the time being GMT + 5.45 or some such nonsense. The point was to NOT be on the same time as India, which had some GMT +30 combination. It seemed almost comical, but many things appear ridiculous from the outside.
What is the letter designator for Nepal? How about Pakistan? Just curious about this, and where is this used?
I think it is a military thing. I did a quick Google on “zulu time” and got this site. My work is, on ocassion, associated with the Aus Navy and Aus Customs, we use Zulu time (instead of calling it UTC or GMT), it is slightly shorter to write, eg 0200 UTC would be 0200Z and also makes it much shorter for designations of other time zones and less ambiguous. Australia’s local time on the east coast can be refered to as 1200K rather than 1200 Eastern Standard Time or EST which could also be confused with another country’s Eastern Standard Time.
I guess the main thing is that it allows the majority of the world’s time zones be given a short unique identifier. If I was to say 1200 EST, I could be refering to any of the countries that use the term “EST”, if I say 1200K then I am definitely refering to Australia’s east coast.
Another site has this to say, although it is actually J and not I that is ommitted along with O.
I don’t know what they do for Nepal, probably just call it “Nepal Time” or something :). Pakistan is UTC + 5 apparently, so it would be Echo.
You can just call it Indian Standard Time (IST). My friends there and I refer to it this way all the time. Simple, no? 