India's Holiday Calendar 2026-2027 | Days Off Vary by Location

Compiling India's holidays into a single table and sharing it internally usually backfires. Because whether a given day is a holiday differs by location. It actually happens that the Delhi office is working while the Gurugram factory is shut.

This article separates out the four mechanisms that determine holidays and summarizes, for the five states with the most Japanese company locations, where operations stop and when.

The Four Mechanisms That Determine Holidays in India

Let's start with the basics. India has no single nationwide holiday law; the following four mechanisms operate independently.

Conflating these leads to the mistaken assumption that "it's on the central government's calendar, so our business partner must be off too." In reality, central government closed days and state public holidays do not match.

Dates from September 2026 Onward That Affect Operations

Let's check the nearest dates first. "Where operations stop" indicates the primary entities affected; private companies do not necessarily take the same days off.

Variation by location is concentrated in mid-October and early November. These two periods are covered in detail later in this article.

Central Government Office Closed Days

The benchmark for gauging progress on applications and approvals with government offices is the annual holiday notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. The 2026 list originally designated 17 days, and Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14) was later added.

Days marked with * are holidays based on the Islamic calendar, and their dates change depending on the sighting of the moon. Id-ul-Zuha 2026 was originally set for May 27 but was changed to the 28th by a notification dated May 22. Avoid setting delivery deadlines on these dates.

The 2027 list has 16 rows because Independence Day and Milad-un-Nabi fall on the same date, August 15. There are 17 observances but only 16 dates.

No Substitute Holiday Is Given

The notification explicitly states that no substitute holiday is given when a holiday coincides with a weekly off day or when multiple holidays fall on the same day. The actual number of weekdays lost is fewer than the number of days on the list.

• 2026 | Three days fall on a weekend (March 21, August 15, November 8)
• 2027 | Five days fall on a weekend, and two observances also coincide on August 15. Only 11 days fall on weekdays

If you estimate annual working days on the assumption that "India has a lot of holidays," you will actually underestimate them for 2027.

There Is a Separate Category: Restricted Holidays

Separate from closed days, 34 observances are listed as Restricted Holidays for 2026. Employees choose any two days from that list to take off.

• The office itself remains open on these days. Rather than closing, individual employees take the day off on their own
• These include Karva Chauth (October 29), Govardhan Puja (November 9), Bhai Dooj (November 11), and Chhath Puja (November 15)
• Because different staff choose different days off, this causes approvals to stall even though the office is not officially closed

Delhi's state institutions use the same system, with 2 days chosen from a list of 33. Haryana allows 3 days to be chosen.

Days Off Differ by Location

This is the biggest pitfall for Japanese companies. Because states notify their own holidays independently, even within the same company, days off differ by location. Below are the points where the five states with the most Japanese company locations diverge from the central list.

Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune)

The state's General Administration Department notifies 24 public holidays. The main differences from the central list are as follows.

• Holi falls on March 3 (second day of Holi). The central government observes it on March 4
• Janmashtami (September 4) is not a public holiday here. Central institutions are off, but state institutions operate
• Gudi Padwa on March 19, Maharashtra Day on May 1, Ganesh Chaturthi on September 14
• Diwali covers two days: Laxmi Pujan on November 8 and Bali Pratipada on November 10
• Bhaubeej (November 11) is notified separately and applies only to state institutions and local government bodies; banks remain open

Anant Chaturdashi (September 25) is not a state public holiday. However, district collectors can designate three local holidays a year, and some districts use one for this. In Mumbai and Pune, road closures halt logistics, so it is practical to treat it as a non-operating day regardless of its official public-holiday status.

Tamil Nadu (Chennai)

The public sector notification lists 24 days. Of these, April 1 applies only to banks, so state institutions are off for 23 days.

• The Pongal holidays run January 15-17 (Pongal, Thiruvalluvar Day, Uzhavar Thirunal). Bhogi on January 14 is not a public holiday
• Ayudha Poojai on October 19. For the central government it is a Restricted Holiday, not a designated public holiday
• Vijaya Dasami on October 20, the same date as the central government's
• April 14 is a combined notification for Tamil New Year and Ambedkar Jayanti
• Holi, Ram Navami, Buddha Purnima, and Guru Nanak Jayanti are not public holidays here

This state's notification has no category for Restricted Holidays. Aside from the 24 designated days, it is a normal working day.

Haryana (Gurugram) and Delhi

Even within the same Delhi National Capital Region, these two take different approaches.

Haryana's Holi (March 4) and Id-ul-Zuha (changed to May 28) fall on the same dates as the central government's. Delhi's only state-specific addition is Valmiki Jayanti; everything else matches the central list.

Gujarat (Ahmedabad)

• Uttarayan on January 14. The following day, Vasi Uttarayan on the 15th, is a Restricted Holiday, not a public holiday
• Bestu Varas on November 10 (New Year's Day in the Gujarati calendar), Bhai Bij on November 11
• There is no public holiday for Navratri. It is the state's biggest festival, but it is not a day off; instead, factor in absenteeism and reduced night-shift productivity during September and October
• There is no holiday on May 1. On the same day, Mumbai is off for State Formation Day

Karnataka (Bengaluru)

• The Diwali holiday here is Balipadyami on November 10, not November 8
• Vijayadashami falls on October 21, one day off from the central government's and Tamil Nadu's October 20
• Ugadi on March 19, Kannada Rajyotsava on November 1 (a Sunday in 2026)

Dussehra and Karnataka's Vijayadashami are the same festival. The central government and Tamil Nadu set it as October 20 based on an afternoon time reference, while Karnataka uses sunrise as its reference, putting it on October 21. This is not two separate observances; it is a single festival shifted by a day due to different ways of reading the calendar.

Two Periods That Need Special Attention

October 19-21

On the central government's calendar, it looks like only one closed day, October 20. In practice, though, Chennai is off October 19-20 and Bengaluru is off October 20-21. In the east, Durga Puja slows things down for the whole week.

If you deal with multiple locations, treating October 19-21 as a company-wide week for not scheduling buyer meetings is the safer approach.

November 8-11 (Diwali Week)

Because Diwali falls on a Sunday in 2026, the central government's calendar makes it look like a year with fewer holidays. That is true if your only location is Delhi. But if your operations are spread across multiple locations, the reality is different.

The whole company will not stop at the same time, but from November 8 through 11, at least one location is always off. Design your plans so that delivery deadlines, shipments, and decisions do not depend on this period. For how to prepare for the shopping season itself, see our article on Diwali 2026 covers this.

What to Do During This Period

• Get approval finalized by mid-October for anything that requires sign-off
• Ask each business partner directly about their days off. Private-company holidays are set by each company
• Keep a separate calendar for each location. A single table cannot manage this
• Settle your own location's weekly days off first. It is not unusual for factories in India to run six days a week, Monday through Saturday

Private Company Holidays Are Set by State Law

Whether a private-sector business partner is off is a separate matter from the central government's list. There is no unified federal law; each state's law sets its own minimum number of days. On top of that, the applicable law differs depending on the type of business.

One point to watch here is the type of business. Maharashtra's Shops and Establishments Act excludes establishments covered by the Factories Act, so this 8-day minimum does not apply to factories in Pune. Factory holidays are determined by certified standing orders, labor agreements, and on-site practice. Depending on whether your business partner is a factory or an office, you need to check with a different party.

Bank Holidays Follow a Separate System

When scheduling remittances or settlements, you need to check yet another calendar, because bank holidays are set by state notifications under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

• There are days that are state public holidays but banks stay open. Maharashtra's Bhaubeej (November 11) is covered by a separate notification for state institutions, and banks remain open
• There are bank holidays that are not public holidays. Under a 2015 central government notification, all banks close on the second and fourth Saturday of every month
• Banks close on April 1 for closing the fiscal year's accounts. Government offices operate as usual. Some states do not observe this closure, so check that year's list

This same section also provides that when the maturity date of a bill of exchange or check falls on a holiday, the preceding business day is deemed the date of maturity. Some Japanese-language sources explain this as being deferred to the next business day, but that is the opposite of what the law actually says.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

India's holidays cannot be managed with a single table, because the three nationwide days, central government closed days, state public holidays, the statutory minimum for private companies, and bank holidays all operate under separate systems. If you have multiple locations, the surest approach is to check each state's notification and keep a separate internal calendar for each.

For the rest of 2026, the periods to watch are October 19-21 and November 8-11. States typically issue their notifications for the following year in November or December, and this article will be updated at that time. For labor-related regulations, see "India's Labor Laws and Employment Regulations" as well.

Sources

• Central government office closed days and Restricted Holidays: India's Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Office Memorandum F.No.12/2/2023-JCA (the 2026 list dated July 3, 2025; the 2027 list dated July 16, 2026). The date change for Id-ul-Zuha: O.M. No.12/3/2023-JCA dated May 22, 2026
• State public holidays: Maharashtra General Administration Department No.PHD-1125/C.R.199/Japuk(29) (dated December 5, 2025; published in the gazette on December 8) / Tamil Nadu Public (Services) Department G.O.(Ms.) No.708 (dated November 11, 2025) / Haryana Department of Personnel No.28/67/2008-1HR-I (dated December 16, 2025) / Delhi NCT General Administration Department No.F.53/812/GAD/CN/2025 (dated December 4, 2025) / Gujarat General Administration Department No.GS/22/2025/JSR/2025/509/GH (dated November 27, 2025)
• Private establishment holidays: Tamil Nadu Holidays Act, 1958; Karnataka Holidays Act, 1963; Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act, 2017; Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954
• Bank holidays: Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) list of holidays