I am about to enter 4th year of an average law school in the country. After experimenting I've realised where my interest lies: M&A, PE-VC and Capital Markets.
However, it's very overwhelming seeing a crowd of students going in the same path, doing better internships and publications than me, having better University tag. I really am interested in making a career in this niche area of law. I am looking for current working professionals on what skills do I need to build other than knowledge of law, in order to actually end up with a decent (don't see the dreams of ending up in tier 1 firms right out of law school).

Here's one skill almost none of my interns / fresh recruits have - due diligence. Your listed interest areas will require heavy duty diligence skills for the first few years. Instead of learning on the job, try to pick up some skills beforehand, read up on procedural aspects of board meetings and other corporate secretarial stuff, learn how to quickly summarise contracts, have a basic understanding of labour laws, read up on fema restrictions, FDI etc.

I am an M&A lawyer with my own boutique firm. When I am hiring freshers, people with some existing knowledge of M&A are at the top of my list ; and publications / moots / class rank do not really matter to me.
Here is my advise:

1. Familiarise yourself with the standard documents signed in most M&A transaction - share purchase agreement, share subscription agreement, shareholders agreements and business transfer agreements. Knowledge of non-compete, indemnity and AVM provisions would be useful. There are several samples in public domain.
2. Read up and try to understand the process for NCLT approved schemes. This is a highly technical and procedural form of M&A, and not well known to many lawyers. Could help impress a potential employer.
3. Smaller firms tend to represent smaller companies, some of who could be start-ups - read about legal restrictions and permissions specific to start-ups in India.
4. Study FEMA provisions on FDI / ODI - these come up a lot in M&A transactions.
5. Most M&A firms / teams take-up a lot of general corporate advisory work, especially when transactional work is slow. Be mentally prepared for this, and try and keep-up with amendments to Companies Act, 2013, its rules and SEBI Regulations (the websites of regulatory authorities are a good source).

Also, if your college projects didn't teach you this - please pick-up word formatting skills. This skill is sorely lacking in many lawyers, and can make your work so much easier and better looking!

M&A, PE and Capital Market though all fall under the corporate law ambit, are very different beasts. Most law firms don't let you chose what you will work on for about the first 2 years but if you really want to specialise first pick a focus area instead of trying to do everything under the sun.

While you may think you are at not at par with your peers, no need to get depressed. You have just completed 3 years of law school. Please focus reading on aspects like FEMA, Ndi Rules, company law, contract law, basics of transactional law (aspects like shareholders rights, contractual terms contained in SPAs, SHAs, SSAs etc - make reading a daily habit. Try to utilise your holidays on internships - there is no better guru than on job experience. While being in premier law school certainly helps, I have seen many average law school students who are sharp and law firms like such bright and well read students. You have enough time in hand, but use it properly. Just FYI - I am from average law school but now a counsel in one of Tier 1 law firms.

Such brainless jobs like that of associates and salaried partners will not be there in the future.AI will certainly disrupt transactional law practice in India and across the world.Also, remember there is no political consensus on economic reforms in India.These new reforms largely led to growth of biglaw and corporate law in India.But opposition parties believe 1991 reforms has really created deep inequalities in society and there needs to a re think.Any rethink will hugely impact the brainless legal scrubbing that corporate lawyers do.

We are still decades away from that, there are a lot of barriers for that mostly because of lack of data to develop AI on, every firm and lawyer uses different terms and style of documenting transactions. The liability and risk part remains a huge risk. By the time technology develops current associates would've made partner or left the law firm career altogether.
As per the current trends, we are actually moving towards more liberal policies for foreign investments, regulators are increasing the caps and compliance part. Companies are being encouraged to go for raising funds from foreign funds. Communist society remains a dream which would never work in a capitalistic society like ours.