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The present work deals with the fabrication of cost-efficient nanocomposite proton exchange membrane (PEM), prepared by incorporation of nanoparticles of Fly Ash (FA) collected from M/s Bina thermal power plant Madhya Pradesh India; within the host PVDF [poly(vinylidene fluoride)] polymer matrix. Subsequently, the nanocomposite membranes are treated with the well-known sulfonating agent chlorosulfonic acid at 60˚C for 1.5 h. The successful incorporation of FA nanoparticles within the host polymer structure along with the sulfonation of the nanocomposite membranes was confirmed by using FTIR, XRD, FESEM-EDX, and AFM studies. The ion exchange capacity (IEC) and proton conductivity (PC) of nanocomposite membranes are observed to be 0.58 meq g−1 and 3.30 × 10−2 S cm−1 respectively. Further, it was interesting to note that the fabricated membranes exhibited enhanced water uptake capacity up to 19.6% with supressed methanol crossover (1.7 × 10−7cm2/s). Among all the fabricated membranes, the membrane SPF-5 (containing 5% w/w FA), exhibited significantly high membrane selectivity 1.94 × 105 Scm−3 s over corresponding Nafion-117 (2.47 × 104 Scm−3 s), which clearly indicates its potency towards an alternative to costly Nafion-117 for DMFCs (direct methanol fuel cells) application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]