Yes agreed. Indian bureaucracy, corruption and their affirmative action policies are the main culprit.
For example, for a population of 1.4 billion people and with so many cities and tourist spots, India has ONLY 18 million tourist visiting India pre-Covid. That is a miserable figure. Malaysia, with only 30+ million people and fewer cities and tourist spots used to get about 25million visitors per year during pre-covid era. At one time Malaysia used to get almost as many tourists as its own population. Even Vietnam is catching up and was already doing 18 million during the pre-covid era. Imagine how much India's untapped tourism potential can contribute to its GDP. The Indian Ministry of Tourism is comparatively useless compared to that of Malaysia or Vietnam.
Corruption is a norm in India. Nobody even talks about it as if it is a given. That is probably because everybody at some point has either given or taken bribe.
Affirmative action policies favoring the scheduled castes, Muslims and Christians have driven away the best brains to foreign countries and they are making these countries richer. It is obvious to everyone but I don't see Indians having a national debate on how to reduce or stop the brain drain. All I see them do is gloating over the success of overseas Indians in comments sections of social medias. I have never seen such misplaced priorities.
Bull's eye, @devann.
I wonder how India can ever reach a developed country status without addressing the corruption level in the country.
Indians are quick to point their finger at someone else instead of looking at their own conduct. Sad.