To understand the significance of the project one must understand that the LCA project was not just started to give the IAF 100-150 stop gap aircraft to stop force depletion. It was a project designed to create an industry from scratch in a country that had absolutely no aviation history of note. Consider the developed countries; they started developing string and wire contraptions with tractor engines and it was state of the art then. After that more than a hundred years of evolution has led to the F 35s and the Boeing 787s. All countries that did not start then have to play catchup.
While I am not defending the delays one must realize that even if the LCA program fails completely (hopefully it wont
) the LCA still will be the starting point of the Indian aviation industry. Design is always evolutionary, and as such starting from scratch, with no knowledge and absolutely no idea is always the worst. That does not account for the delays. But I hope it answers for the question why it is significant. India had to start designing
sometime. Maybe cause it started in the 1980's , another 30 years down the line India will be able to design something state of the art. Self reliance is not achieved in one or two generations.