Has India really progressed economically?

One of my friend Nitin travels a lot and it is mostly by train and plane. We were casually discussing the topic of possible indicators to show the economic progress happening in the country at different segments of our population. Nitin told me that he realized something interesting during his last train journey. He said that over the past 2 to 3 years he noticed there is a change in the preference of people while traveling. The lower middle class people have now started traveling by sleeper class rather than by general class. The middle class seem to travel by first class. Upper middle class have moved on to planes and air conditioned coaches in the train. Obviously this transition is not happened suddenly but has happened in a fairly short period of 2 to 3 years. One of the plausible reasons for this could be increase in spending power which is a direct reflection of their income level.
In my opinion the real economic progress of a country is a measure of the growth in the income level of poor, lower middle class, and middle class people. However, the observation made by Nitin is a good indicator that the country is steadily making economic progress.