Is NCO the same as NIC?

No. NCO classifies occupations and roles. NIC classifies economic activities of establishments.

Can one NIC activity contain many NCO occupations?

Yes. A manufacturing activity can include managers, technicians, operators, clerks and labour roles.

Which one should a business use for registration?

For business activity registration research, use NIC. Use NCO when the task is about occupations, roles or workforce pathways.

NCO vs NIC: occupation code or business activity code?

Quick decision table

Question	NCO	NIC
Primary question	What work does a person do?	What activity does an establishment perform?
Unit classified	Occupation / role	Business activity / establishment
Used for	Skills, roles, workforce, training pathways	Business registration, Udyam/MSME, MCA, activity profiling
Best starting point	Job title or role description	Revenue-generating activity or operating scope
Relationship	Many occupations can appear inside one NIC activity	One NIC activity can involve many occupations

How to move between them

On NIC leaf pages, the “Who is this code for” block links to NCO profession hubs. On profession pages, related NIC codes show where that occupation appears in business activity contexts.

Browse professions · Browse NIC Sub-classes · Open classifier hub