They do, particularly in business or in the bigger cities. Around 10 per cent of the Indian population speaks English, so you can usually get by in tourist destinations or workplaces.   That said, it does pay to learn at least some Hindi, which is spoken by around 44 per cent of the population. This can change regionally given the volume of official and unofficial national languages, though, with approximately eight per cent speaking Bengali and seven per cent Marathi.