World Bank president Ajay Banga on Monday said amid global challenges, he is more optimistic about India and its economy now than he has been “in a long time”.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of the third G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting here, the first-ever Indian-American to head the top global financial institution said the world economy is in a difficult place.

Banga (63) showered praises on India for its digital infrastructure, saying he is a “big fan” of such initiatives taken by the world’s fifth largest economy. ”I am more optimistic about India, as a whole, economically, than I have been for a long time. The fact is that the world economy is in a difficult place. It has outperformed what everybody thought. But it does not mean that it won’t be more challenging. The IMF forecast, the World Bank forecast are that the world will get a little challenging over the next year or so,” he said at the Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre, where the G20 meeting is being held.