A new and efficient manganese-based magnetic nano-catalyst has been developed via covalent grafting of the manganese acetylacetonate complex onto amine-functionalized silica-coated iron-core nanoparticles. The obtained nanomaterials were characterized by XRD, HRTEM, VSM, EDS, ICP-OES and FT-IR. The resulting nano-catalyst was found to be efficient for the selective oxidation of organic halides and alcohols to desirable carbonyl compounds in terms of excellent yields with high turnover number. The effortless magnetic recovery of the catalyst and its reusability renders the present strategy practical to address the environmental and industrial issues.