Despite being a great colonial empire, the Spanish held no part of India when the British,the French and the Dutch controlled various parts of India. India was a very profitable colony to the Europeans yet the Spanish didn't colonize it. Why?
The simplest general answer I can give is that the Spanish were not permitted to take India. The treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 stated that India was the sole property of the Portuguese for trade and settlement. A year previously, the Catholic church had issued a series of papal bulls on the permitted territory of the Spanish Empire. The last, named the Dudum Siquidem granted India to Spain for settlement in September 1493. However, Spain was a naval empire and the discovery of a sea route to india was not known until the return of Vasco da Gama's expedition in 1499. By this point, the treaty of Tordesillas was already in effect and the Spanish were barred from most operations in the east Indies.