30 years? Dude, stop kidding yourself. That's like saying AMCA has started in 09. It's not even an official program yet, it's just a concept.No money given to build any prototypes. No different to LCA 30 years ago.
ADA was formed 32 years ago, to build some sort of, "LCA", but it was also India's only defence aerospace R&D wing at the time.
I dont know what you expect of India's private firms back then, let alone 10 years ago. India locked them completely out of the defence game, until only recently. And they themselves are leeching off of on DRDO's, HAL programs. Example being the private firms are going to create modules for LCA, and AMCA in the future for HAL/DRDO. Along several other examples of PPP engagement.
People then would bash Agni 1 and Prithivs for taking a long time with countless failures, I wonder what those same people say now when they hear of K4s/K15s flawless trials out of Arihant.