From my own experience, private Indian businesses tend to pay promptly and are very reliable, yet become hopelessly entangled in endless bureaucracy once payments become international (this is probably the Government's fault, not their own).
My solution (which isn't too practical, perhaps not even legal, yet works)- travel to India once a year and collect your fee in cash, you'll also enjoy a great trip (Bangalore Butter Dosas and mysore pauks with south Indian filter coffee, culinary heaven) ;)
.."private Indian businesses tend to pay promptly and are very reliable" - no sir, they're not.
And this Government bashing, is only partially correct. It is not that hard to exchange money across borders like it has been described in SISO case. Seems more like an issue of the company, and its people at hand.
The cost of traveling and meeting people to collect money in cash is exactly what you wouldn't want to do when working on the SME tier. That doesn't scale, rather burns.
My solution (which isn't too practical, perhaps not even legal, yet works)- travel to India once a year and collect your fee in cash, you'll also enjoy a great trip (Bangalore Butter Dosas and mysore pauks with south Indian filter coffee, culinary heaven) ;)