Is English necessary to excel in life  

No, not really. Most of the people here in my country knows how to speak in English but our country is very poor. So I don't believe that it can excel ones life. I believe that it is only one of the important points to excel, but that alone could not make one progress or excel.
I am currently tutoring English to a Korean. And according to her,some countries give bigger salaries for those who can speak English, like in Korea.

english is an international language, here in my country we all know hoe to speak english although not all could be a good one. however to enter a job means to speak well the language this is to be able to talk to different kinds of people. i agree with you that you must love your own culture and native tongue first before learning the other ones. countries you mentioned above are well-developed because people are taught to love their own country though they are not complied to master english. hope other countries are also like these.

With economical growth English has b'come a neccesity these days
Good to know
To excel all u need is u'r will power n not english

The need to speak in English should not be taken negatively. It is necessary to be able to communicate effectively with other people around the world. People in Japan, China, Germany, etc., managed to succeed on their own because they've rich resources. Their country is already on the top. But it will be a disadvantage for them not to be able to speak in English whenever they'd want to expand or to become successful outside of their country. Philippines and India on the other hand, are taught to speak English properly so that employment with the huge US companies will be easy. Actually, it's not only with the US companies, but for all other companies around the world that offer great opportunities.

English has been admitted as a common language through out India. India has the policy unity in diversity. ulike japan or china india has different languages through out the country. Its difficult to see like this in a different country. So for information exchange India needed a common language among them. Though Hindi was accepted as the national language it was easy for English to spread as India has good connections internationally.
Obviously it became a necessary for indians to study and be fluent in English. This was not the case of other countries you mentioned

I am from India to, but i live in America I think it is somewhat necessary to speak English properly. They good thing I have seen here is nobody has criticized anyone in my family because they couldn't speak properly.

English as we know is a universally accepted language.Even I am a indian and I know that in a developing country like India, speaking good english is very important.Some of the countries like Japan,China,Germany use their mother tongue more and dont give more priority to english. But this is mainly because they have got good job opportunities in thier own country itself. But we Indians go in search of jobs to foreign countries like USA,UK,Canada,Australia etc, which are english speaking countries.Moreover most of the MNC's are established in India which give importance to english.So I would suggest every Indian to have a fluency in english to improve their carreer and get better job stremes.

I think that English is a very common language and there are many people all over the world that look at English as being their main language. I love the English language and I do feel that it's important to know English and know it well. It's important to read as well as write in the English language. There are two sides to every coin though and there are lots of opportunities I'm sure if you don't speak English but excel in another area perhaps. In other countries if another language is used then maybe the person can do well in that country and that country alone, it just means that won't have the opportunity to travel as they only have the one language which excludes English. Andrew

Yes, I agree with you that there is a craze for english in India. You should also know that a commercial exploitation is also taking place by opening schools/colleges where only english spoken.
But you should also know that there are several Countries in the world where english is not that important. However, english has become important because of internation relation.

In Many countries the people speak English at least the coutries studies the language as the second language , English is important to us to learn,we can use it here and there.