If you are looking for fancy kitchen with good looks, go for good quality Quartz like AGL or Kalinga Quartz. It's a good alternate to granite but also is costlier. There is some negative reviews of Quartz/Corian tops due to low quality and unknown brands providing at cheap price. if you have budget constraint, then can opt of Granite.

The main sink is right on the corner -- only one place to put things down. Behind the sink is not a great option. Other sink -- prep sink? hand-washing sink? bar sink? seems to be too fancy and not very practical for a kitchen space. Save that kind of sink for a guest powder room. Any sink in a hard-working kitchen needs to be flexible and purposeful. The exhaust fan above the cooktop seems too high up and not wide enough. Trust me -- mine is not wide enough, and I wish it was, but at least it's not too high up. I appreciate in this sleek, modern design, you want a very low profile exhaust fan. But -- you need the capture area to be wider than your cooktop so you can capture all the grease, steam, and smoke. One advantage you have is that there are no cabinets there to limit the width of your exhaust fan -- so widen it up. It's a must in a hard-working kitchen, especially one with a somewhat open floor plan. I don't know how you will use your kitchen or what the rest of your home is like. You may value a sleek, beautiful kitchen way more than a hard-working, efficient space, in which case, most of my comments are lower priority.

Had another question - I have been told that any granite that’s non-black is not suitable for kitchen platform usage. Is this true? Are lighter shade of granite prone to discolouration or other issues?

Nano white G5 is a Chinese made engineered quartz of 5th generation that is available only in white color. There are several other Indian quartz manufacturers such as AGL, Johnson etc that offers quartz in same price range in various colors. In US, engineered quartz is the most desired countertop material for high end homes. It has better properties and stain resistance than granite. I just chose AGL quartz for my new Kochi kitchen.