Launcher stuck on "Launching game...", shows "Play Offline" despite being online (India)

Launcher stuck on “Launching game…” for a long time (about 10 minutes)

“Sign in with Microsoft” button appears, which on clicking stays greyed-out for another 10 minutes

Xbox sign in window appears which when clicked -

Launcher finally opens, and shows 2 messages on bottom bar -
1. “Oh no! Something went wrong and you will not be logged in automatically next session. View our troubleshooting guide here.”
2. “Oh no! Something went wrong and we couldn’t connect to the Minecraft services. Please connect to the internet to refresh your online access. Try again”

Shows “Play Offline” button despite being online.

On clicking “Play Offline”, this message is shown on right side of the screen - “Sorry you have encountered a problem; please try restarting your launcher”