Washington/New York, Sep 17 - Business confidence in India is on the rise, defying the global downturn, says the country's apex business chamber as India pitches here strongly to attract more foreign investment in the core sectors of industry.

'Certainly there is a movement in foreign institutional investment and foreign direct investment has also begun to pick up,' said Amit Mitra, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

'While rest of the world is shrinking, core sectors of steel, cement and auto industry in India are beginning to grow,' Mitra told IANS on phone ahead of an institutional investors conference in New York starting Thursday.

Noting that the FICCI business confidence survey index for India which had plunged to 44 in the third quarter of 2008-09 had risen to 64 in the first quarter and 67 in the second quarter, Mitra said: 'We are here to further kindle these forces.'

Besides supporting the institutional investors conference, FICCI has also organised a round table for US businessmen Thursday with TKA Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Ajay Shankar, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy Promotion, and Meera Shankar, India's ambassador to US.

It's also hosting a dinner Thursday with India's Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for major power companies including General Electric and Price Whitney.