Our firm recommendation for those interested in cutting the costs on their transfers from the US to India would be to steer well clear of banks and traditional transfer services. These services include Money2India from ICICI Bank, Western Union, and even expensive non-bank entities such as PayPal (which is no longer available for transfers to India.)
1. I want to gift these properties to my sister, resident of India. Does she or I have to pay, for this gift-transaction, TDS or any Income Tax in India?
For example, according to our comparison engine, sending 1.5 lakh rupees from India to the USA with ICICI Bank would cost around 3.9% of the amount transferred, which is about four times more than the cheapest available service compared on Monito for the same transfer. And given PayPal's similarly high exchange rate margins, the story isn't very different with them either.
90% of the money transfers to India are sent to WorldRemit local partners in India within minutes. At which time, these funds are either ready for collection by the recipient (Cash Pickup) or to be added into their bank account or mobile money account. Estimated time for delivery is less when the payment is completed through Debit or Credit Card. The estimated time for receiving these funds also depends on the country, the delivery method selected and the way you pay for the money transfer. The actual delivery time may differ due to the accuracy of recipient information given to WorldRemit, mandatory identity verification for the sender and the recipient, and third party operating hours in India.
There are times that they need to confirm the sender's identity before they can process a money transfer. If this is the case, they will send the sender an online web receipt and an email asking them to call. Once they have confirmed the sender's information, the transfer will be completed and the receiver can pick up the money. You may contact Western Union to find out more details about the status of the transfer.