Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts fought in India's coastal Carnatic region from 1746 to 1763, primarily between the French East India Company and the British East India Company. The wars were intertwined with local succession disputes over the Nawabship of the Carnatic and the Nizamship of Hyderabad, as well as with broader European conflicts including the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War.
Joseph François Dupleix arrived in India in 1715 and rose to become governor of the French East India Company in 1742. He was a principal instigator of the Carnatic Wars, organising Indian recruits under French officers and pursuing alliances with local rulers to extend French influence beyond Pondicherry. He was eventually recalled from India and died in poverty in France after Charles Godeheu replaced him following the Treaty of Pondicherry in 1754.
At the Battle of Wandiwash in 1760, Sir Eyre Coote led British forces to a decisive victory over the French army commanded by the Comte de Lally. The defeat effectively ended French military power in southern India. Pondicherry, the main French stronghold, fell to the British the following year in 1761.
The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, returned Chandernagore and Pondicherry to France but forbade French traders from administering those posts. France also agreed to support British client governments in India, ending French ambitions of establishing an Indian empire and confirming British dominance among European powers in the subcontinent.
Robert Clive's military career began during the First Carnatic War, when he was taken prisoner at Madras and escaped. He then participated in the defence of Fort St. David at Cuddalore and in the siege of Pondicherry. During the Second Carnatic War in 1751, he led British troops to capture Arcot and successfully defended it.
The Carnatic Wars established the British East India Company as the dominant European trading power in India by pushing the French company out of political influence and confining it primarily to Pondicherry. That dominant position eventually gave the British East India Company control over most of India and led to the establishment of the British Raj.