French President Emmanuel Macron arrives for a significant three-day state visit to New Delhi beginning February 17. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hold discussions on strengthening bilateral cooperation across a wide spectrum covered in the India–France Strategic Partnership. A key component of this partnership is a mammoth 40 billion USD (Rs 3.5 lakh crore) government-to-government deal for India to buy 114 Rafale fighter jets which both countries will ink over the next few months.advertisementThe IAF needs the 114 jets to bolster its falling squadron numbers— it has just 29 fighter squadrons against a sanctioned strength of 42,…