title: SQL standard for timestamp in UTC or with timezone
body: <p>I am searching for an standard SQL way to ensure independently from the database to have a column with a timestamp in UTC or as timestamp with the information of the timezone.
  UTC example with stored timestamp UTC in DB-column:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>stored UTC value = <strong>2014-01-01 15:30:00.000</strong></p>
  
  <p>local time India 21:00/9pm as local timestamp "2014-01-01 21:00:00.000"</p></li>
  <li><p>stored UTC value = <strong>2013-12-31 23:30:00.000</strong></p>
  
  <p>local time India 05:00/5am as local timestamp "2014-01-01 05:00:00.000"</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>In the UTC way the application has to cope with the timezoning</strong></p>
  
  <p>And now the way I do not really know if possible, with timestamp and timezone with the above values</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>stored local value = <strong>2014-01-01 21:00:00.000</strong></p>
  
  <p>local time India 21:00/9pm as local timestamp "2014-01-01 21:00:00.000"</p>
  
  <p>but there is the timezone information?</p>
  
  <p>or how to get the timezone information of this timestamp?</p></li>
  <li><p>stored local value = <strong>2014-01-01 05:00:00.000</strong></p>
  
  <p>local time India 05:00/5am as local timestamp "2014-01-01 05:00:00.000"</p>
  
  <p>but there is the timezone information?</p>
  
  <p>or how to get the timezone information of this timestamp?</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Hopefully someone can help me out of the dark?
  Are there good practices on timezoning issues and storing the data for international application?</p>