It is an amusing sidelight of history of chemistry that the original names of gallium and germanium were Eka-aluminum and Eka-silicon, where eka, Sanskrit for one, was used by Mendeleev, the famed formulator of the Periodic Table of elements, as representing beyond. He predicted the existence of these elements in a paper in 1869, and it was the identification of these elements in 1875 and 1886 that made him famous, and led to the general acceptance of his Periodic Table.

There are a couple of theories about why Mendeleev, a Russian from St. Petersburg, used a Sanskrit prefix. According to Professor Paul Kiparsky of Stanford University, Mendeleev was a friend and colleague of the Sanskritist Bohtlingk, who was preparing the second edition of his book on Panini at about this time, and Mendeleev wished to honour Panini with his nomenclature.

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Indo-Israeli ties: the post-Arafat shift

By Dr P.R. Kumaraswamy

When New Delhi and Washington have serious differences over issues such as the Iranian nuclear program, the Iraqi conflict and Syrian support for militant Muslim groups, they converge on Israel.

The end of the Cold War and the recognition of new Middle Eastern realities following the Madrid Conference of 1991 compelled India to reevaluate its sour relations. When the Arabs and Israeli leaders were seeking a negotiated political settlement, there was no reason for India to continue with its cold policy, and formal ties were established in January 1992. After some initial inhibitions, bilateral relations have improved considerably and a number of political, economic and military delegations have visited one another. The relations improved significantly when the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government came to power in 1998. The party's prolonged sympathy for Israel and its determination to move away from the pro-Arab stand of the Congress Party enabled both countries to forge closer ties. More