National 
              Industrial 
              Classification
              [All Economic Activities)
                     2008
              Central Statistical Organisation 
              Ministry of Statistics and  
              Programme Implementation 
              Government of India  
              New Delhi 
              India
                           Preface
         The Central Statistical Organisation of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation 
         being nodal statistical authority is vested with the responsibility of setting up standards for collection, 
         compilation and dissemination of statistical data. The official statistical data are required to be collected 
         and presented according to classification designed to facilitate their use for national economic policy 
         and  for  international  comparison.  Comparability  of  statistics  available  from  various  sources,  on 
         different aspects of the economy, and usability of such data for economic analysis are prerequisite for 
         standardization of a system of classification.
         2.  The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), which is responsible for coordination of statistical 
         activities in the country as well as for evolving and maintaining statistical standards took up the task 
         of evolving a standard industrial classification as early as in 1960 and evolved a Standard Industrial 
         Classification (SIC) in 1962. To take care of the significant changes in the organization and structure 
         of industries, the necessity to revise the industrial classification has been felt from time to time. With 
         this objective, the CSO revised SIC 1962 in 1970 (NIC-70), NIC-1970 in 1987 (NIC-87) and NIC-87 
         in 1998 (NIC-98). It is during 1998, 4-digit of ISIC-3 was folled in toto in NIC-1998 and these 4-digits 
         were extended up to 5-digits based on national needs. After release of the United Nations International 
         Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) - 2002 Rev. 3.1, NIC-1998 was updated keeping consistent 
         with ISIC Rev 3.1 and the updated version, namely NIC-2004 was adopted.
         3.  The United National Statistical Commission considered the draft ISIC revision-4 during the 38th 
         session of UNSC for adoption by all the member countries in the year 2008. The SCIS of the Ministry 
         set up an expert committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. S.K. Nath, DG (CSO) on 20.07.2007. Three 
         meetings of the Steering Committee were held on 26.11.2007, 13.5.2008, 05.09.2008 respectively 
         and in the 3rd meeting the draft NIC 2008 was approved by the Committee CSO (IS Wing), Kolkata 
         accomplished this task of revision NIC-2004 consistent with draft ISIC Revision-4 under the leaderhip 
         of Shri P.C. Sarker, DDG.
         4.  I would like to place on record my appreciation for the efforts made by the officers of CSO (IS 
         Wing) namely Shri Debasish Sarkar, Director,  Shri  G.  Punjabi,  Joint  Director  and  Shri  Soumya 
         Chakraborty, Dy. Director, Shri Jhulan Kar, DDG, FOD (EZ). Smt. Mita Roy Chowdhary, DDG, DPD, 
         Shri Atanushasan Basu, Director, SDRD deserve especial thanks for going into the details of the draft 
         and making necessary changes. Shri Vijay Kumar, ADG of Economic Statistics Division of CSO was 
         responsible for monitoring the entire work.
         5.  Improvement of classification and their updation is an on going task and I would urge the users to 
         follow NIC-2008 extensively and send comments/observations based on the experience of use, which 
         would go a long way to improve the future classification.
         September, 2008                    (Dr. S.K. Nath) 
         New Delhi                       Director General, CSO