Everyday practical information for India

Alcohol, which is a state matter

There is no national alcohol law in India. Each state writes its own, and the differences are large enough to matter.

• Dry year-round: Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Mizoram and the union territory of Lakshadweep. Production, sale and consumption are prohibited outright. Bihar and Gujarat enforce this with imprisonment, not just fines.
• Gujarat will issue you a permit. Foreign visitors can apply for a temporary liquor permit on production of a passport with a valid visa.
• Ages vary. Delhi: 25 for spirits. Maharashtra: 25 for spirits, 21 for beer and wine - and the state formally requires a personal consumption licence, which is generally ignored for visitors in ordinary bars but can be produced as grounds for a fine during a police raid.
• Three national dry days: 26 January (Republic Day), 15 August (Independence Day) and 2 October (Gandhi Jayanti). Nothing is sold or served anywhere in the country, hotel bars included. Around twenty more dry days a year are declared at state level, and further ones during elections - check the local calendar if a drink matters to your plans.

Drones: don't

• A foreign visitor cannot fly a drone in India. There is no tourist pilot permit, so there is no legal route to it whatever your qualifications at home.
• Importing one has been prohibited since 2022. Bringing a personal drone normally means customs seals or detains it and returns it when you leave the country - unless you hold advance DGFT import clearance, which is a paperwork exercise, not a formality.
• Flying one anyway risks arrest, deportation and heavy fines under the aviation security laws, and the sensitive-zone list includes airports, military sites, government buildings and historical monuments.

Etiquette

• Temples, shrines, mosques and gurdwaras: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at the entrance.
• Use the right hand for eating, for handing over money or documents, and for paying. The left is traditionally considered unclean, and using it reads as rude even when nobody says so.

Everyday practicalities

• Power - sockets are type C, D and M at 230 V, 50 Hz. A European two-pin plug goes into a type C socket but not into the earthed type D ones, which are common - bring a type D adapter rather than assuming.
• Time - UTC+5:30, no daylight saving. That is +4.5 hours from central Europe in winter and +3.5 in summer.
• Opening hours - shops and bazaars roughly 10:00 or 11:00 until about 20:30. Government offices and banks 10:00 to 17:00 on weekdays. Sunday is quiet in many commercial districts.
• Toilets - street facilities are poor. Use shopping malls, international chains or the lobby of a four- or five-star hotel, and carry your own paper and hand sanitiser.