At the risk of sounding idiotic I am just trying to add a little point to this discussion. See there can be other meanings to Great Power rather than one mentioned in the article (even though I cannot debate on them). As far as the Political Influence goes I feel that India has always been a soft state. About the military, I guess the only reason we have a force as large as we have because of the hostility with the neighbors, otherwise the things would have been different. And we have never been known as great sports persons or athletes. However these factors should not overshadow the fact the India's mildness and tolerance are a great virtue, it has been a country of saints and we should not be surprised that nature is found in the overall behavior and  attitude of the country. See somehow we need to acknowledge that keeping in mind the negative points, the positives are way too heavy. Like the list goes on and on. One of the few countries in the world that can make their own cars, launch their satellites, have nuclear power, are the largest (or in the top league) producers, manufacturers and exporters of innumerable items, are among the fastest growing economies, among the largest already, biggest democracy, multi lingual, multi religious etc..the only country that can be termed equal or even greater than India is US, not even China due to the politics and intolerance over their.  

 This is not an argument, however I wanted to put my point of view as a food for thought for the discussion. Hope it helps.