A contract that should have been signed at the end of 2019 got delayed by a year because HAL got a bit too greedy. It's also likely they increased the prices so the govt calls for negotiations and this way HAL buys more time for the development of Mk1A.
So yeah, with 2 jets to be delivered by March 2024, and the remaining every year after that at a minimum of 16/year, we are going to see a delivery cycle of 6 years. Basically, the year we will decommission the last Mig-21, we will commission the first full Mk1A squadron. So we will have to manage our western border with only about 50-60 jets, not a good position to be in. It will take at least 2 more years for us to be in a comfortable position.
I hope the Kiran hangar is properly leveraged to reduce the delivery time.