NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources on Thursday said growing demand for metals in India would drive company's profit, which declined 46.2 per cent at $188.2 million for the first half of the fiscal.

"We expect that the economic and industrial growth in India will help underpin the demand for our products. We started our business in India, mainly focus in India, which has tremendous potential," Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal said at a conference call.

Hit by a sharp fall in metal prices due to slump in demand, the global mining giant's "attributable profit" for the first half of the current fiscal stood at $188.2 million against $350 million in the year-ago period.

The company posted a total revenue of $2.9 billion for the half-year period as against $3.9 billion a year ago.

Vedanta produces mainly copper, zinc, aluminium, prices of which have have almost halved amid the demand slump during the worldwide economic slowdown.

However, Agarwal sounded bullish on metals saying, "We have seen some recovery in metals prices and the fundamentals remain highly attractive."

"I have seen the meltdown when so many things were happening in the world, (In) India (demand) was growing phenomenally," he added.

The company declared an interim dividend of US 17.5 cents per share for the period under review.