The first question most teams ask about working with developers in India is “when will they be online?” The honest answer depends on where you are. A team in Dubai shares almost the whole day. A team in San Francisco shares very little unless someone shifts their hours. This guide gives the actual numbers for each region and the habits that make the gap work in your favour.
The basic arithmetic
India runs on a single time zone, Indian Standard Time, which is five and a half hours ahead of UTC. India does not change its clocks for daylight saving. That last point matters: when your country changes its clocks, the gap to India changes by an hour.
| Your location | India is ahead by | 9:00 AM your time is |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai, Abu Dhabi | 1.5 hours | 10:30 AM in India |
| Riyadh, Doha | 2.5 hours | 11:30 AM in India |
| Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris | 3.5 hours (4.5 in winter) | 12:30 PM (1:30 PM in winter) |
| London | 4.5 hours (5.5 in winter) | 1:30 PM (2:30 PM in winter) |
| New York | 9.5 hours (10.5 in winter) | 6:30 PM (7:30 PM in winter) |
| Chicago | 10.5 hours (11.5 in winter) | 7:30 PM (8:30 PM in winter) |
| San Francisco | 12.5 hours (13.5 in winter) | 9:30 PM (10:30 PM in winter) |
What that means region by region
The Gulf: nearly the same day
With a gap of only one and a half to two and a half hours and no clock changes on either side, teams in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar work almost the same hours as India all year. The thing to plan for is the working week: Saudi Arabia works Sunday to Thursday, while the UAE and India work Monday to Friday. Agree which days are shared and schedule planning meetings on those.
The UK and Europe: a shared morning
A normal working day in India covers the whole European morning and the early afternoon. That gives roughly five to six shared hours without anyone working unusual times. Put meetings before lunch, and use your afternoon for work that does not need an answer the same day.
The United States: overlap has to be designed
From the US East Coast, the natural overlap with a standard Indian day is close to zero; from the West Coast there is none. A working arrangement needs one side to shift. The usual pattern is for developers in India to work a later day, so that their evening meets the US morning. Four shared hours is enough for a stand-up, reviews and questions, and it is the minimum we guarantee on US engagements.
The clock-change weeks
The US and Europe do not change their clocks on the same dates. The US moves forward on the second Sunday of March and back on the first Sunday of November; Europe moves on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October. For a few weeks each spring and autumn, recurring meetings can land an hour off for someone. Check your calendar invitations in those weeks instead of trusting them.
Habits that make a time difference useful
Spend shared hours on decisions
The overlap is the scarce resource. Use it for things that need a live conversation: unblocking, design decisions, reviews of anything risky. Status updates do not need to be live.
Write the handover
At the end of each day, each side leaves a short written note: what was done, what is blocked, what is needed from the other side. This single habit is what turns a time gap into a longer working day instead of a slower one.
Make questions answerable without you
A question asked at the end of your day will be read while you sleep. Include the context, what you have already tried and what decision you would make if you had to. The other person can then act instead of replying with another question.
Fix the meeting times
Hold the stand-up at the same time every day inside the overlap, and keep one longer slot each week for planning. Meetings that move around are the first thing to break across time zones.
Record what you decide
Decisions made in a call should be written where the whole team can find them. People who were asleep during the meeting should not have to ask what happened.
The advantage people overlook
With a well-run handover, work continues after you log off. Something you asked for in your afternoon can be ready for review the next morning. Teams that organise around this get more done per calendar day, not less.
See the overlap for your region: United States, United Kingdom, Europe or the Middle East.
