My guess is that HAL had similar inputs from M2k folks because the poor jet would be a greater mess if you had Mig lifers providing design cues. There is dassault somewhere but i take the word on indigenous design.
This was before my time, but I understand there was a formal interaction on airframe issues, not a contract per se, but there were discussions. It was also a time when delta was sexy; many people thought that way, some were successful, some were less successful. The wind tunnel was available fairly early, not right from inception but early enough, so it is not clear why the canards didn't come in as part of the original design.
What was completely unique and indigenous was the flight control laws. It was partly developed in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, until that morning when the engineers were locked out, and not allowed to retrieve their own notes and papers, and everything was done from scratch back in India. The airframe was discussed, the engine was a disaster, and everyone knew it, the AESA was pure miscommunication, as there was a superb team of radar specialists who could have done the miniaturisation five years ago if the left hand had known what the right hand was doing. The policy on weapons was never clear to me; perhaps others understood it better. In any case, in my shop, we never dealt with weapons. That was entirely an HAL matter (for the Air Force; the Navy had a brilliant very low profile organisation doing that exclusively).
the PAF decoupling avionics from the airframe which is now yielding dividends.
Afterthoughts - there was no earthly reason why we could not have done just the same. Perhaps reason dawned late; after all, this is basically what was done with the SU 27 avionics. More on DM.
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