Is it true that many people in India actually learn English as first language, even before Indian languages?

It's not so much as a first language because there are so many languages amongst India that a person may learn Hindi before going to school where they all learn English. English is basically the educational system first language and the economic language. India has several official languages. I suppose someone in a high level position might skip Tamil, Bengali or Hindi and just learn English.

Some do in larger cities, according to this blog in the New York Times / India section from June 2012.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/indias-n...

These two quotes are telling. There is one reference to social strata in the second quote.

"In Bangalore and elsewhere in Big City India, factors like great mobility, a demanding school system and mixed marriages are churning up a startling consequence: a generation of urban children is growing up largely monolingual — speaking, thinking and dreaming only in English."

"In the lower socioeconomic strata, where learning English is aspirational, the language is trickling down quickly. Neighborhood private schools have unstated admission requirements: at 3 and 4, the child is required to be toilet-trained and speak English."

About 40 million people in India, or 0.6% of the Indian population, speak English as a first language, but about 500 million people speak it as a second language.

Yes in cities. And not always just the upper class people. In fact these days it comes like a shame that people now English better than their mother tongue (including me)