Einstein believed that Mach's principle should play a major role in finding a
meaningful spacetime geometry, though it was discovered later that his field
equations gave some solutions which were not Machian. It is shown, in this
essay, that the kinematical Λ models, which are invoked to solve the
cosmological constant problem, are in fact consistent with Mach's ideas. One
particular model in this category is described which results from the
microstructure of spacetime and seems to explain the current observations
successfully and also has some benefits over the conventional models. This
forces one to think whether the Mach's ideas and the cosmological constant are
interrelated in some way.Comment: Received an Honorable mention in the Essay Contest-2002 sponsored by
the Gravity Research Foundation; A paragraph added on how the model can
explain the CMB anisotropy observations; To appear in the Classical and
Quantum Gravit
