India: 48 hours across six days, and double time from the ninth hour
India is the only country here whose standard week is not built on five days. The statute changed recently: on 21 November 2025 the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 came into force and repealed the Factories Act 1948 along with twelve other central labour laws. Section 25 of the Code keeps the 48-hour week and caps the day at eight, so on the usual six-day roster the ordinary day is eight hours and the working week runs Monday to Saturday. That six-day divisor matters for more than the daily rate: when statutory leave is deducted, each day off removes eight hours rather than the 9.6 a five-day 48-hour week would imply.
Section 27 requires twice the ordinary rate for overtime, and it is the only statutory premium here that doubles from the very first overtime hour. The trigger is more than eight hours in a day or 48 in a week, calculated on whichever basis favours the worker, so the daily line usually bites first: a ten-hour Tuesday earns two hours of double time even if the week finishes under 48.
The large caveat is coverage. The Code reaches establishments above its size thresholds, and offices and shops remain subject as well to the Shops and Establishments Act of the state they sit in, thirty-odd statutes that set their own hours, overtime rules and leave. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu do not agree with each other, so the figures here are a central floor rather than anyone's exact entitlement.
Earned leave reflects that: the Code grants one day for every twenty worked once you pass 180 days in the calendar year, so about fifteen days for a full year of service, and a state's own Act may give more. With around ten public holidays on top, roughly 25 paid days a year involve no work, a narrower gap between paid hours and worked hours than anywhere in Europe, where four to five weeks of leave is the norm.