yeah, you HAVE to have an indian licence, ICAO ones wont work. can take a fair amount of time to get all the paperwork thru, guess they want to make sure pilots are the patient type, dont get flustered easily!
are some foreign crews, air sahara's crj guys are all from argentina, all training captains.
same deal for any new types inducted into the country, the expats stay on till the local crews are trained and released on line.