[kamaal]

>>The reaction I am seeing in the international press to India's mars mission is quite the opposite

Indian press was no different. There was 20 minute debate(These guys are still debating if the mission was necessary) on whether the mission was necessary. The next 2 hour prime time news was about Sachin Tendulkar's last test match.

Some channels just gave a passing reference. All that was shown is that ISRO had launched a mars mission with a 20 second clip of the rocket taking off.

There is no popular demand. The general public is not in any position to understand what the mission is or why its important. How much effort was gone into it, and how it was done.