In the present work. Ni doped In2O3 nanoparticles were prepared using simple co-precipitation method. From the x-ray diffraction analysis it is observed that all samples exhibit single phase polycrystalline nature. All the diffraction lines correspond to the bixbyite type cubic structure. A UV visible analysis reveals that optical band gap decreases from 4.63 to 3.84 eV with Ni doping. DC magnetization measurements reveal that Ni doped In2O3 nanoparticles exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.