I disagree and the reason is that India has already experience with the LCA and that was a partial success.
The airframe and fly-by-wire software is all Indian.
Radar was semi-successful and the technology transfer would help fill in gaps in their knowledge in this area.
As for other electronics, India has experience in developing a working mission computer for the SU=30MKI and has also been able to develop other systems too - think that was RWR.
Engine technology will be the sticking point as the French are unlikely to teach the Indians the "recipe" for developing modern turbofans. That is the "crown jewel" of aerospace technology and no-one will easily part with that secret.
As for the example of South Korea, that is not a good analogy as they are not able to lift a satellite into orbit without Russia help whereas India can due to it's decades of experience in this area. If India had not spent decades on the LCA, then I would have agreed with you.
Seems that you still don't get the idea of the sheer scale and depth of building a "simple" airplane.
airplane making is NOT about some avionic, a radar and some fbw software.
airplane building is THE crown jewel of industrialisation,
simply because it reflects the generall levels of sophstications and competitiveness of ALL industries of a country. e.g.
if you make airplanes, you are one of world-leading industrial powers, simple as that.
oke, seems that turkey make f-16 on tot, or india make su-30mki on tot, but depending on what "kind" of tot, it means nothing, and/or doesn't reflect and prove their industrialisation levels that much.
there is only 1 boeing today (by US, with about 200 years industrialisation of USA)
there is only 1 airbus today ( led by France, UK, Germany... all euro powers together with also about 200 years industrialisation)
Ruskies make planes, but not at that level. don;t forget they have abour 150 years industrialisation, too.
China make planes, still a bit further down the ladder, even though china has been industrialsing by leaps and bounds for 30 years now trying to shrink those "200 years of tech knowhow and capability" into 50 or 80 years.
where do you think indian industries are under this context?
India is at least 50 years behind China on scale and depth of indutrialisation. tot of su-30mki is easy in fact as long as all the key works are done by russia and what india has to do is to put some parts together with the instructions of on-site rissian technicians and consultants. congo can make boeing too, as long as boeing sends them all body parts, materials,factories, infras, technicians and everything teaching them how to paint. it doesn't mean, however, that indian or congo industries are sophisticated enough already to do tot literally. ditto turkey.
LCA, arjun tank, rifle and bullets are some of the best examples. the key tech and parts of ALL of them are IMPORTED, including key designs. the only thin india has to do is to assemble them WITH some help of the coresponding foreign technicians. Now how many decades passed? where are they?
if you think tot some french 4+ gen tech will blunder india into a sort of world-leading industrial power as making such a sophisticated plane logically suggests, and as what indians are acturally think so, then somalia or congo can become industrial germany, too, who wouldn't, with only 25 billions bucks, and to hell with those "200 years"stupid hardship.
india's current industrial level is about 80 years or more behind what tot things like rafale requires. it's like you can fax all the tech knowhow of Renault sportscar to a countryside village which has only a couple of rickshaw maintenance stores, it can't make a Renault, or the tail of it, any time soon, at least not up the same standard, no matter how many gold bricks the villagers give you or how many technicians you will send down there.