in you opinion
as per our threat perception levels, do you think an abhay will suffer by comparison wrt what we can expect to face? also wont is be way cheaper? in case of ifvs, dont numbers matter to a great degree when you are trying to implement a combined arms doctrine? Will india be willing to buy cv=90s in requisite numbers considering that our planners essentially see tanks as the end all and be all of armoured conflict ?tell me what you think
When you look at the last Israeli / Libanese conflict, Iraq or Afghanistan wars, you will see that low cost IFV were often too less armored, even against rebel forces with simple RPGs. That's why many of the NATO countries had to modify and strengthen their vehicles afterwards, which of course was costly. The Stryker IFV for example, was one of these and now with credible upgrades, it turns out to be way heavier and even too heavy to be airlifted by an C130, as it was planned initially. The Germans, which tend to do too much advertise their new wheeled (Boxer) and tracked (Puma) IFVs as the most secure vehicles in their class, which comes with the downside of heavy weight (over 30t and up to 43t). Modern weapons are so advanced, that you can't take lightly armored vehicles even in UN peacekeeping missions anymore, let alone to face PLA.
IN send out an RFI for IFV, morta carriers, tank destroyers and light tanks all meant for the northern borders, in areas where our bigger tanks like Arjun and T90 won't be helpful anymore. PLA has huge numbers of older Russian based armored vehicles, but already is modernising with new wheeled and tracked vehicles too. We can't compete them in numbers and when we then also compromise on quality, how should we be able to face them?
I'm not sure what IA has in mind, but it's pretty clear that DRDO is not an answer for us and our requirements.
Abhay or Tank Ex might have been useful low cost modernisation programs for older Russian vehicles in our inventory, but if we want to buy or develop new once, we need more capable once and not just cheap stuff.