Maybe ISRO Scientists are not like corrupt officials of DRDO.
Sorry but still there are many big projects which they should have completed on time such as LCA Tejas.
If it is so why did ISRO scientists fail to get GSLV right after three launches.You should know that our PSLV is a a phantom weight contneder in international launch business,
DRDO has given the country a state of the art road and rail mobile rugged Agni-V which has the capability to hurl 4 or 5 MIRV nukes anywhere on china with single digit meter accuracy effectively stalemating china's string of pearls strategy.
And it's sub launched ballistic missile tech is also proven and placed on Arihant, not an insignificant achievement .
Eventhough peoples were talking about LCA from time immemorial , actual funding for two tech demo was sanctioned only in 1993, The initial 560 cr given to ADA in 1983 was to set up initial infraand test facilities for the program and to do project definition .This was completed by 1989.
But funding was given only in 1993 for two TDs all due to economic crisis of 1990s.
And TDs flew in 2001 with in 7 years of validating all the techs CLAWS for fly by wire, composite tech, inertial navigation system , mission computer,aerodynamics of compound delta .Not an insignificant achievement by any yard stick . That too with all the tech partners washing their hands off after the Nuclear test sanctions.
In 2004 IAF revised it's requirements leading to FSED phase -II which led the fighter to be modeled towards more rounded multi role capability with litening pods and strengthened wing sections to carry more launch stress inducing higher weight missiles.
Also the only part that lagged behind was the kaveri jet engine and even that has made substantial progress in achieving close to 81 Kn (84 Kn is the target ) wet thrust by 2009.
The reason K-9 development was discontinued was due to the newer IAF demands which led to the FSED phase-II of tejas program the weight of the fighter went up by a ton and the engine became underpowered for that.
It's marine version is working successfully and will get naval orders and the much more powerful K-10 development with foreign assistance is on.It is a significant achievement considering that TWR of K-9 is around 6.8, which is what close to western engines of the 1990s tech. Note the GE-404 IN 20 which powers tejas mk-1 too has around 8 as TWR .
In comparison the ISRO is yet to reach the 1990s pay load levels of western launch vehicles in the all critical geo synchronous orbit.I don't mean to belittle their other achievements including 100 successful space launches and INSAT , RITSAT, mangalyan, Chandryan sats.
to put it into perspective both ISRO and DRDO are 20 years behind west in tech development , which is natural when you consider the late start , meager funding(that's why C.N.R.Rao criticized the politicians as fools immediately after receiving bharath ratna ) brain drain and primitive industrial back ground.
SO IOC at 2012 gives you a time line of 20 years which is just five years more than the time it took for grippen which had majority foreign components and even fly by wire from US.
RAFALE and TYPHOON too took the same period as Tejas. it is all explained in tejas IV thread.While DRDO achieved this IOC after ever changing user requirements ISRO with no outside interference is yet to launch GSLV successfully. ofcourse ISRO has done well with chandryiyan and INSATs and PSLVS along with remote sensing satelites.
So both have done as much as possible struggling against brain drain to foreign countries in the back drop of primitive industrial base of the country.
