I think strength of China is the lack of politics in the country. As it being a straightforward communist state government isn't answerable to anyone for any of it's step. This makes the process much speedier considering you get appropriate Presidents. While Indian Government isn't the same. You can see political agenda in almost every decision. Similarly they have to face criticism by opposition too for doing so. This makes implantation of decisions much more difficult. Moreover I have seen numerous times the top ministers wasting their times in political rallies which really should be banned completely. This is the biggest hurdle that India has. Moreover inclination towards USA is obvious as China doesn't has a very good image of maintaining border peace with India. India earlier had that greater inclination towards USSR and Russia but that seems to fade now. It at least looks like today India trust USA more than Russia. But for competing with China, India should first realize their current position and then move towards the economic growth from base zero. But the government here is too shy to showcase any demerits of the country. These days it seems to me that India is moving backwards in terms of development.
Indian setbacks are more caused by wrong concentration. India to become a new power in the Asian region rivals China. So Indian policy is made based on the shadow of China. When China concentrated on creating food and energy security with the OBOR system to feed its population, India actually struggled to prop China into a regional center.
The vacuum of western power in the South China Sea has caused India to strengthen its strategic alliance with America and try to attract America to counter China's increasing military strength in the South China Sea. China created its own system or orbit while India has not yet determined what can be used as its bargaining power.
In addition, although the Chinese and Indian corruption performance indexes are the same, the number of corruption in India and the seriousness of eradicating corruption are very low. Unlike in China which imposes a death sentence for corruptors.