Vidur, Have you read A.P. Vekateshwaran's 'Ministry of Defence" which is his doctoral thesis? Good libraries in Delhi should have it.
Also Lorne Kavic "India's Quest for Security " This is a Canadian scholar's look at MoD from 1947 till 1965.
Google Books abridged verison
I got my copy from a pavement bookseller near JJ College of Architecture, Bombay in many long years ago!!!!
The DOA was supposed to be the ADA created from HAL design staff when AM MSD Wollen was the Chairman HAL.
Meantime due to long gestation, it developed its own institutional culture. Which is that of a research organization when its mandate is design and development. It became like that as it had to develop a lot of infrastructures. And it was under DRDO and not under MoD directly. So it had reduced visibility to national goals.
LCA was a national goal but did not get the political support.
Let me clarify.
Being a national project so much reliance on the US especially knowing the proclivity for sanctions was totally unconscionable. Engine, flight control laws and who knows what else. The RLG was also offered as far as I know but looks like not taken thankfully.
The big challenge to my eyes was the relaxed stability which is the need for dog fighting at close combat sorties. Now, most modern fighting is BVR so what this Allah O Akbar (AoA) give you?
Secondly, even the 23mm Gun is not yet fired in the air, which is where the relaxed stability would make a difference.
Aso for CCM air to air missiles, i.e infra red guided missiles, look at what happened to the Sidewinder 9x fired by US F18 at a Su-24 in Syria. The chaffs deflected it and the pilot had to fire a radar guided BVR for a plane that was in visual range...
So one more instance that actual practice trumps theory.
All this points to the lack of oversight by the IAF combat leaders in all those review committees. Just passive oversight and not active involvement.
What forum calls chai biskoot sessions.