The present study shed light on synthesis, characterization and solar light induced catalytic activity studies for reduction of 4-nitrophenol by CeO2 and nano gold catalysts supported over CeO2 and CeO2-TiO2 (1:1 mol ratio). The support systems were prepared by simple precipitation technique and the gold supported samples were synthesized using modified deposition-precipitation with urea method. The physicochemical characterization was performed by XRD, UV-Vis DRS, BET surface area, ICP-AES, TEM and XPS techniques. The catalytic performance of the synthesized catalysts were measured spectrophotometrically by engaging them for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in presence of NaBH4 serving as a hydrogen source. Au/CeO2-TiO2 has been found to be a very effective catalyst showing similar to 100 % conversion in short reaction time. The catalytic activity of the Au/CeO2-TiO2 showed no significant difference even after recycling the catalyst for four times indicating a promising potential for industrial application. [GRAPHICS]