Well, it's apparently a strategic partnership, not a purely technical or civilian one. The Russians are selling some of their launch technology to the Indians, and the Indians are developing their launch capabilities, including for ballistic missiles, so there is probably interest on both sides to have the Indians participate in launching some of these birds. Plus the Russians can have the Indians shoulder some of the costs of launching these birds.

Interestingly, almost all the references to the Indians launching any of these birds are from around 2006 and then a big gap. I can only infer that things got put on hold for a while during that time. I finally found something more recent here. Still haven't launched any but it still seems to be the plan. I can't vouch for the veracity of this website, but it's not inconsistent with anything older I have run across.

Switching gears back to China's system--apparently it is generally referred to as the COMPASS system.