Living in beijing

You can try Taj Pavilion in GuoMao (Metro Line 1 - GuoMao Station) just beside KFC. I tried the curry chicken there, it is my favorite...RMB62, the boss and restaurant manager there are also Indian.
Your hotel's receptionist might be a good translator for you. You may call your hotel's receptionist and let them communicate with the taxi driver when taking a cab/taxi. The security in the city area  is quite good.

For some inexplicable reason in China they speak Chinese and the lower the education (and older the person) the smaller the probability that they speak/understand English. is It is a given that taxi drivers do NOT understand English and even if you write the word HILTON in English they will not understand.

The front office staff in the good hotels do speak English though they sometimes have problems understanding people whose English has a thick accent.

The standard solution is ask the concierge to tell the taxi driver where you want to go and to take with you a card from the hotel with the Hotel's name written in Chinese so that you can return.

Taxi scams happen in many countries and China is no exception (going the long way instead of taking the short cut)however it is normally not a problem. The biggest scam potential is on arrival at the airport. Do NOT take a taxi from a tout but go the taxi queue and only take one from there - do though have the address / and address of the hotel written in Chinese.

There are 4 Hiltons in Beijing with a 5th one entoute.

Hilton Beijing (3rd Ring Road)
Hilton Wangfujing
Double tree by Hilton
Hilton Airport Terminal Three.

At a guess you are you will be at either the Hilton Beijing or the Hilton Wangfujing.   The Hilton Beijing has a small number of Indian restaurants relatively close by:

Punjabi (Lucky Street)
Tamarind (Marriott Beijing North East)
Ganges (Lido)
Taj Pavilion (Holiday Inn, Lido)
Taj Pavilion (Guamao)

Punjabi is the cheapest.

I do not think you will need an interpretor with you 24/7 and you should be able to manage as long as you have a mobile phone and the phone number of your host's English speaking secretary/ pa. If you are uncomfortable using this person (maybe for privacy reasons) then I know a couple of companies that can either provide phone support and/or provide you with your own pa for the duration of your stay and/or organise sightseeing or tourist trips for you.

Money matters:  Hmm, depends what where and what you mean by dupe. Prices in shops are fixed. Prices in markets and street vendors are negotiable. Often a foreigner will not succeed to bargain the price down as far as local could.  Note - some markets (example Pearl Market, Silk Market) often look like shops.

In terms of language, I get about by copying down from the online translation the phrases I would expect to use and show the cab drivers or sales people my requests. That's been working just fine. For food, you could even print photos i.e. rice, water etc. Some of these online translators even teaches one to pronounce the Chinese words ...mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=translate.

Good luck.

Yes I also like MDBG but find that Hanping C is better for my Android.