Well the basic tanks themselves were introduced quite some time apart (1993 versus 2015). Leclerc XLR (the current latest variant) is more comparable to the Leo 2A7V and M1A2C SEPV3 (latest variants of Leo 2 and Abrams respectively) and even then I’d give the edge to the German and American offering.
if France does participate in this tender I have no doubt they’d have to remake or massively upgrade the tank for it to compare to whatever else is on offer by the late 2020s/early 2030s (which is when India intends to buy a new tank). So maybe they’ll bring it on par with the other offerings.
However as it stands in 2021, The T-14 is still the most superior tank on paper (that is until the production issues are taken into account). With Leo 2A7V imo being the second best (best when production is taken into account), the T90MS provyv 3 and M1A2C give it good company, while others like the upcoming Challenger 3 and current Leclerc XLR, VT-4P and ZTZ-99A (which itself is in need of an upgrade) are not too far behind depending on the specific characteristics like mobility, firepower etc
None of these are bad tanks, just better at certain things as required by the user.
However one other major issue that may exist with india buying a French/western tank is logistics given they’d need to buy completely new ammo supplies (unless modifications are made to equip the French tanks with 125MM Russian style guns and make the tanks use Russian ammo). Even then the Indian tank doctrine and logistics would need a major overhaul to support this massive change (kind of a mashup of logistics as seen in the Egyptian army). It is doable, but it may be a lot more expensive than going for a newer Russian option, it also largely depends on how much France is willing to modify the Leclerc to suit Indian logistics, something that has been an issue in the past (for example: not giving IAF permission to use Euro/french missiles with Russian or Israeli radars present in Tejas and SU30).
Keep in mind that when a country like India intends to make a big defense purchase, companies will often make India-specific versions of their products because the design effort and cost is worth it given the large order india will be placing, with that in mind, Indian options are very open, because they can take any countries tank and (given the company/country is okay with it) modify it to their standards and then buy those/produce them locally.
either way, I don’t see India buy new tanks just yet, so we’ll have to wait a few years before we can see what india is after, the RFI does give some indication, but it’s not really binding, just a general layout, requirements can change rapidly.
i will as always press on the fact that india needs a stop gap until it gets new tanks, and the best stop gap is to modernize its T90S tanks, which unfortunately it seems to have no intentions of doing so far. This is also important because Indias new tank likely won’t replace the T90S, only the T72, so keeping them in service is important. As of now it seems that india is banking on the superiority of its other arms to make up for its lower armored capability, but you know how it is with india and Pakistan, they always make purchases to counter each other, sometimes Pakistan makes a big buy, sometimes india does it.
Tank combat is less relevant in the india-China theatre but light tanks come into play there a lot, something China has plenty of and india is interested in, but will be going for a foreign offering, let’s see what they go for, there are fewer options in this regard.