Influence of Co doping for In in In2O3 matrix has been investigated to study the effect on magnetic vs. electronic properties. Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed formation of single phase cubic bixbyite structure without any parasitic phase. Photoelectron spectroscopy and refinement results further revealed that dopant Co2+ ions are well incorporated at the In3+ sites in In2O3 lattice and also ruled out formation of cluster in the doped samples. Magnetization measurements infer that pure In2O3 is diamagnetic and turns to weak ferromagnetic upon Co doping. Hydrogenation further induces a huge ferromagnetism at 300 K that vanishes upon re-heating. Experimental findings confirm the induced ferromagnetism to be intrinsic, and the magnetic moments to be associated with the point defects (oxygen vacancies V-o) or bound magnetic polarons around the dopant ions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.