New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS): Congress leader Shahi Tharoor has expressed optimism on the growth and direction of the Indian economy, and said corruption, power shortage and red tapism were some of the challenges that it had to overcome to grow faster.

Addressing an international conference on "Beyond the Washington Consensus: Public Policy and Future of Development Assistance" here on Sunday, the former minister said the Indian economy did well even during the global economic slowdown.

"Indians abroad remained loyal to the country. They kept on investing," he said, adding that a lot of the investment in the country came from the blue collar workers of Indian origin in Gulf countries.

He said the practice of savings in India also insulated the economy from any major effect of the slowdown.

Tharoor also said that the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 had dented India's image as an emerging economic giant, making some investors withdraw their investments.

"Foreign investors withdrew 12 billion dollars from the stock markets after the Mumbai terror attacks and yet India's mature response to the crisis encouraged investors to come back."

The conference was organised by the O.P. Jindal Global University.