India has the advantage of having English more widely used, and having a growing IT sector.
Right now in India, the sign of success is having your own house with plumbing, when it gets to the same level as China, then they will become number 1. China is in a decline anyway, every power has their rise, and then subsequent fall.
India and China have similar population size. The modern nation-states are about the same age. It could certainly be argued that India's development lags China in many categories. Indian young women hope to marry a man with indoor plumbing. Chinese young women require a husband with a house and car.
Yet the Western press, and this forum, reserves its criticism for the PRC. It seems to me another instance of imperial blindness to, if not nostalgia for, the British legacy of destruction, a psychic misdirection of guilt.
Kashmir wishes it had HK's status.