Reading these few sentences alone, was enough to understand how reliable this article is!
The author even confirms that GoI officially says, the deal is under negotiation and then puts his complete claim only on basis of "informed sources". More interstingly is, that all figures he stated of M2K, Rafale and F16 are wrong and in Euro, instead of Dollar, while he gave the correct figure for Mig upgrade even in Dollars!
Lets put it straight :
- according to officials the deal is under negotiations and could be fixed, or even signed during the visit of president Sarkozy
- Mirage upgrade by all former reports, is said to cost 1.5 billion Euro, or around $2 billon Dollar, which means around 30 million Euro, or $40 million Dollar each
- Rafale and F16 costs more than 30 - 35 million Euros
But it's funny to see all the pro EF articles when British defmin was in India and now when French president comes, all the Dassault bashing articles are coming too.
P.S. Rockstar and I talked about this upgrade in the IAF discussion thread recently too and this is how our M2K-5 could look like:
http://www.defence.pk/forums/1307004-post1041.html
Doesn't really change the fact that the upgrades shouldn't cost more than 15 million euros. India should really start spending more money building their own stuff, it'll stimulate local industries and save a ton of money from your defense budget.