Air India DEL to SFO nonstop flight was launched in December 2015[1]. So, it's a relatively new route for Air India, and it has been very successful due to its non-stop nature. This change in route (flying over Pacific) was announced back in August 2016[2] itself. They're doing incremental optimization of route plan, nothing wrong in it. There might be permits/permissions required to fly over Chinese air space too, which might have been resolved by now[3].

[1] http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2015/12/07/air-india-inaugurates...

[2] http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/air-india-to-fly-ove...

[3] http://dgca.nic.in/circular/ops/Ops05_2016.pdf

I dont think there is any greater lesson or theme here about lost chance of BRICS of anything. I think the world is ever changing and there is always newer opportunities that show up to capitalize from.

India is a big country/ship and is harder to steer quickly. In the last 25 yrs, India's GDP growth rate has not fallen much below 4% (averaging more than 6%). India is achieving near 100% literacy rate below a certain age demographic, it has a good space program, there is good encouragement for education and free enterprise, I reckon India is doing many things right.