An incredibly complex an unprecedented negotiation process is why. The deal is huge and the technical aspects need to be discussed properly so there is no b*tching after the deal is signed.
The bids made would all have to have been compliment (up to a point) just to be allowed to take part in the evaluation and flight test phases. The subsequent "down-select" was based on the birds who met the IAF's technical criteria after rigorous testing in both India and outside and evaluations, then it came down to price for the L1 and L2 determination process and it was only then that the actual bids were scrutinised in great depth, this is the formula they followed and I am sure there is logic behind it.
A Pakistani talking about empty purse. Even without changing GDP numbers , India is growing at 5.5%. World bank prediction is that India will surpass 6.5% growth rate by 2016. For Pakistan , that's would be distant dream. We have enough money to sign 100s of such deals, but we don't like to throw our money.
Now go back to begging China/Saudi or IMF for money. You desperately need it to buy some buses for Karachi and to build some power plants. You can spend the rest of the aid money to buy some "indigenous" JF 17s from China .
Exactly which is very unhealthy practice when you have to burn 20 billion dollars on the line. the way they handled this deal is amateurish as a project managing point of view . Because announcing the winner just by numbers and time saving point of view when the rules of the tender strictly says that The details in the technical evaluation report are most important for a contender to win. if you a say they announced it based on number then no fighter is a winner because they didn't look into all the aspects , and also this MMRCA saga is a stop gap measure to fill number then they should have gone Govt to Govt route to save time and money because even HAL is a Phase IV stage of manufacturing Su 30mki and we license manufacture both RD series of engines and Saturn AL-31 still we are struggling to use the inputs int our own indigenous fighter and engines . How this deal could be able to convince IAF Or GOI MMRCA gonna help indigenous industry because we will end up as another Phase IV stage entity for the MMRCA winner
Nope, ToT (surprisingly) hasn't really been an issue (it has been sorted out anyway), the main hurdle is about liability for the 108 Rafales to be built in India by HAL. The Indian side wants Dassualt to guarantee them even though they are not being made by Dassualt.
