A novel, highly efficient and reusable palladium based catalyst has been synthesized by covalent grafting of diphenyldiketone-monothiosemicarbazone on silica gel followed by metallation with palladium chloride, and the resulting organic-inorganic hybrid material was found to be highly effective catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction of various aryl halides with alkenyl boronic acid to give stilbenes. The catalyst was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF), BET surface area analysis, solid-state C-13 CPMAS NMR spectroscopy, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and elemental analysis. High turnover frequency, mild reaction conditions, high selectivity for E-stilbenes, and easy recovery and reusability of the catalyst renders the present protocol highly indispensable to address the industrial prerequisites and environmental concerns. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.