Delhi will host its biggest sporting event yet, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, in October, but nothing seems to be going right. With news channels ferociously digging up every real or potential issue related to the Games—from exposes about corruption within the Indian Olympic Association to the city’s unpreparedness for the mega event—Delhi citizens are braving a series of anxiety attacks. Enter the tycoon Subrata Roy Sahara of Sahara Samay, a national news network, who wrote what he called an “Emotional Appeal,” carried on the front page of a leading daily.
Sahara, who’s synonymous with the Sahara brand, charges that while the media “has done its duty,” his fellow news networks and media owners have also “overdone it,” causing “absolute negativity” among Indians and leading to bad PR for India. He asks the media to withhold further negative coverage until after the Games, “for the pride of our beloved country.” It could be argued that his patriotic-sounding appeal is an effort to cover up his network’s inability to come up with an expose to match that of his competitors. But either way, through this well-managed PR exercise, Sahara succeeded in building his own reputation as well as that of his news channel. Sahara Samay comes off looking mature and nationalistic by choosing to allay public anxiety at a time when other brands have been fueling it.
The two biggest media conglomerates in India and Pakistan have joined forces in a novel initiative: to campaign for peace between the two countries. Indians are anxious about terrorism in general and Pakistani terrorists in particular, according to JWT AnxietyIndex 
In the past year, younger generations (including myself) have had their first experience of a recession. In Australia, AnxietyIndex.com research revealed that for Gen Y, levels of anxiety have been disproportionate to the downturn’s actual impact—clearly, a generation pessimistic about the future and fearing the unknown.
