Structure and optical properties of cadmium sulphide-zinc oxide composite nanorods have been evaluated by suitable characterization techniques. The X-ray diffraction spectrum contains a series of peaks corresponding to reflections from various sets of lattice planes of hexagonal ZnO as well as CdS. The above observation is supported by the Micro-Raman spectroscopy result. The optical reflectance spectra of CdS-ZnO is compared with that of ZnO where we observe an enhanced absorption and hence diminished reflection from CdS-ZnO compared to that from only ZnO. A very small intensity of the visible photoluminescence peak observed at 550 nm proves that the ZnO nanorods have very low concentrations of point defects such as oxygen vacancies and zinc interstitials. The photocurrent in the visible region has been significantly enhanced due to deposition of CdS on the surface of the ZnO nanorods. CdS acts as a visible sensitizer because of its lower band gap compared to ZnO.