I think most assessment of the Indian economy put the blame on incredible amounts of bureaucracy as one of the main constraints on growth. The same ("we have to protect their jobs") argument is used to protect that.
Granted it is not nice to have corruption and it introduces gross inefficiencies. But that isn't the primary reason India is lagging behind China, nor is it entirely because of a lack of free markets.
One excellent example would be solar power, India could pool its market capacity, technological ability and finance to have built up a huge ecosystem, but instead it went the route of importing everything, even as it goes about building some of the largest solar projects in the world.
The Chinese are wealthy because they would never let go of such a golden opportunity.
India's strength lies in its size and its ability to pool resources and technology.
Compared to China, India is way more open market, it's institutions are transparent.
Where India has failed vis-a-vis China is its unwillingness to use its market size and pooling ability and play its strengths. India's past economics has been driven by too many western educated economists who fail to see India as a unique case instead have always attempted to use a European or American template for economic development.