ABSTRACT
Using India and the US respectively as paradigmatic examples of the largest recipient and sender respectively, this chapter focuses on the dynamics of how remittances came to be. India's remittances story is a story of its migration to the rest of the world. With an estimated 1% of America's population being of Indian origin, the number and kind of migration to the US over the decades has varied. The main agency regulating flow of money from India is the Reserve bank of India. The Indian Revenue Service also has a role to play in the process, as it comes to determination of amount of money flow in and out of India, in terms of per capita flows. Informal mechanisms of sending money seem to be quite prevalent in the case of India. In India, it is estimated that 70% of domestic remittances are sent through informal channels such as hawala system.
