Why indeed the inordinate delay? This deal has been heard of since the early 1990's. With defence procurement completely mucked up by cussed bureaucracy and Tehelka type obstructionism, merely deciding on a weapons platform and negotiating a contract takes an average of 15 years. The Yanks cannot be trusted/won't sell us anything worthwhile, Karat & Yechury raise hell over any dealing with Israel and the Russians, apparently are still stuck in Soviet era inefficiency.
The public sector R&D establishment as well, unfortunately has a culture of endemic delays, typical of the Nehruvian state. The dhimmi adherents of the "guns vs butter" syndrome like Prafool Bidwai and Sandeep Pandey, of course would be happy to have DRDO manufacturing coffee machines and refrigerators..... Actually, cancel the refrigerators - those would be defined as "luxury items" by the Stalinists, only members of the Kaangress/CPI(M) politburo would be eligible to own one if they had their way!!!
At any rate, the Indian Navy is likely be left without an aircraft carrier for an extended period of time when the Chinese encirclement of India is assuming menacing proportions......
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I do remember reading somewhere that the deal for the Gorshkov was signed in American Dollars and now that the Dollar has fallen so much the Russians are quite unhappy at the value of the deal. Maybe we should go back to Rupee-Rouble trade;)
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