The Indian National Science Academy was established in January 1935 with the objective of promoting science in India and harnessing scientific knowledge for the cause of humanity and national welfare. In 1968 it was designated as the adhering organisation in India to the International Council for Scientific Union (ICSU) on behalf of the Government of India. Over the years, the Academy has published a number of journals, volumes, biographical memoirs, etc. The year 2009 2010 will be specially celebrated to mark the Platinum Jubilee of the Academy. Many programmes are planned in different...

The book summarizes the occurrence, geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology and phase-equilibria studies in air and under high pressures related to the most intriguing group of potassium-rich mafic and ultramafic rocks, often including host of exotic mineral assemblages including feldspathoids. Mantle-derived K-rich melts had intrigued most of the founders of Geology and many of the later experts in the field of Igneous Petrology, because they are sometimes associated with carbonatites and even diamond. They tend to contain anomalous concentration of many such elements as K, Rb, Sr, U, F, P,...

There is now evidence that the upper mantle (and perhaps even the lower mantle) is not homogeneous but rather like a fruit cake, and that there are thermal anomalies in the mantle resulting from deep mantle plumes or subduction.