The de facto national carrier of India for international service may as well be Emirates. No surprise that DL has a history of taking aim at the GCC3 airlines since the GCC3 got in the way of DL (and DL's European partners) being able to exploit the S/C/W Asian market as easily as before they became competitive on a product/service basis as well.

Air India has been a financial drain for at least as long as it's been in the hands of the Government of India. I don't know how AI doing back in the days when Tata had it, but AI couldn't have been as big a financial drain back then as it has been in many years since the government grabbed it.

The economy in India is way more in the toilet than even the official stats show, so Indian carriers -- struggling even at the best of times -- will continue to struggle even as a relatively faster growing market in ways.

DL won't get back to its historical peak presence in India for quite some time.