From the RNZN thread, Mr. C commented,
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As for asking AW and Dassault? I would ask AW why 6 years ago some of their execs were slipping undisclosed "facilitation payments" to a small group of underpaid Indian officials (all connected with the Congress Party now out of power). A case of questioning the corporate governance of AW in my view just as much as the flaws on the Indian side. Some AW execs did time and Indian officials jailed or fired - good. As for Dassault well they are working with another Indian firm Reliance Aerospace for the 36 Rafale deal. HAL got the Shornet business and LM India the F-16V for the in country manufacturing dimension rather than the previous Rafale 126 joblot deal with HAL started under again the former Congress party regime. That is business and politics and both change. Dassault have responded to the request for a further 57 for the Indian Navy."
Sorry for promised late reply here. I am not up to speed on the AW issue but charges against the AW Euro executives were dismissed I believe. IIRC Indian officials changed the altitude specification which allowed the AW-101 into the competition, rightly or wrongly. Anyway, the fighter issue is more important. Concerning the 110 jet tender, nothing has been selected yet. Media reports in India are negative on Reliance Aerospace. Apparently they have zero experience in aerospace. As for HAL, we will have to wait and see if Boeing fares better than Dassault in dealing with them.
Certainly India has some interesting proposals, e.g. F-16 production line in India, substantial Indian content for SH assembled in India, same for Dassault, MiG etc. Then there is the navy tender for 57 fighters. Boeing claims the SH can do STOBAR so Boeing and Rafale (if it is STOBAR capable) can both offer a combined AF/Navy bid assuming that is permissible. IMO, a combined 167 jet order for SH along with the 100 plus USN requirement as well as the 36 jet Kuwait order should allow a very aggressive bid from Boeing.
Rafale fighter jet deal is a Rs 1.30 trillion defence scam, says Congress
As I am not an expert on Indian affairs perhaps the locals can comment on the link.