A slice of the extra cash to be paid to the Russians will almost certainly be passed back to some of India’s ministers and ranking naval officers. I also suspect that the Indians want the aircraft as much as they want the ship. At the worst, if the ship proves to be poorly serviceable, the aircraft and their component systems can be copied for India’s indigenous fighter aircraft program.
Ministers and Bureaucrats. The Naval board has little say in these matters beyond putting out an RFP.
Actually no-the Indian navy was forced to buy Mig-29s as the Russians were giving the carrier for free-the IN’s original choice was the French Rafale-M and homebuilt LCA fighter.