To explore new insights of nuclear structure and dynamics, several challenging experiments using heavy ions from BARC-TIFR Pelletron Linac Facility and associated theoretical calculations have been carried out in Nuclear Astrophysics Section of BARC. The recent research highlights include the results on some of the following topics: i) Reactions involving weakly bound projectiles, ii) Nuclear level density, iii) exotic modes of fission, iv) Electric quadrupole and octupole transition strengths, v) Hoyle state of 12C and v) Nuclear instrumentations. Some of the recent results on the above topics and the existing experimental setups will be discussed.