German IT firm Nagarro leases 7 lakh sq ft of office space in Gurugram at a monthly rent of ₹2.90 crore

Gurugram real estate update: Nagarro Enterprise Services Pvt Ltd has leased the commercial space spread across an area of 7 lakh sq ft for 12 years.

Nagarro Enterprise Services Pvt Ltd, a German IT services firm, has leased more than seven lakh sq ft in Gurugram’s Sector 18 for a monthly rent of ₹2.90 crore, according to property registration documents accessed by Propstack.

Documents show that the commercial space has been leased in the Udyog Vihar area of Gurugram, Sector 18, in a property constructed by Chimera Developers LLP.

According to the documents, the property leased is spread across the basement, five parking floors, and from the sixth floor to the 14th floor.

The lease commencement date is January 1, 2025, and the total lease period is 12 years. According to the documents, the lock-in period for the lease agreement is three years.

The security deposit paid for the property measuring a total of 7.06 lakh sq ft is ₹10 crore, the documents showed.

The transaction was completed on April 17, with a stamp duty payment of ₹2.49 crore.

The agreement includes a clause for a 12% rent escalation every three years.

Queries have been sent to Nagarro Enterprise Services Pvt Ltd. The story will be updated if a response is received. Chimera Developers LLP could not be reached for comment.

Office rentals

Office rentals across India’s top seven cities recorded a year-on-year increase of 4% to 8% in 2024, reflecting strong demand in the commercial real estate segment, according to a report released in April 2025 by real estate consultancy Vestian.

The report attributes the surge in rentals to India’s robust economic performance, growing urbanisation, and an expanding base of global companies seeking high-quality office spaces. On the other hand, eight key global office markets showed a mixed trend in rental movement during the same period.

In India, Delhi registered the highest annual increase in office rent among major cities, rising 8.2% to $ 0.9 per sq ft per month.

According to the report, Mumbai followed Delhi with a 6.7% jump to $1.6 per sq ft. Chennai saw a 7.7% hike to $0.8 per sq ft, while Bengaluru posted a 4.7% increase to $1.1 per sq ft. Among international markets, office rents declined in several major cities. New York saw a 1.3% dip in average office rent, settling at $7.5 per sq ft per month.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

Jayant Narlikar: The Indian astrophysicist and sci-fi writer who challenged ‘Big Bang’

Prolific science writer, nurtured trail-blazing physicists at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune; pioneer of steady state cosmology and tireless science communicator.

Dr. Jayant Narlikar, one of India’s most distinguished astrophysicists who combined profound theoretical insight into cosmology with a lifelong commitment to science communication, passed away at his residence in Pune on Tuesday (May 20, 2025). He was 86.

Describing what made Dr. Narlikar one of the “greats”, Dr. Tarun Souradeep, Director of the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, told The Hindu that it was his “sense of justice and equality,” and his “unwavering commitment” to popularising science and combating “non-science-based superstition and astrology,” that set him apart.

As a gifted institution-builder, Dr. Narlikar played a pioneering role in establishing the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, where he served as Founder-Director. Under his stewardship, IUCAA emerged as a globally recognised centre for theoretical physics, cosmology, and astrophysics.

“He spawned a number of leading scientists who set new directions and schools: Thanu Padmanabhan (Cosmology, Gravitation and Quantum Gravity); Sanjeev Dhurandhar (Gravitational Waves); Ajit Kembhavi (Data-driven observational astronomy), to name a few,” Dr. Souradeep, who completed his doctoral research under Dr. Narlikar’s guidance, said.

A prolific writer and science populariser, Dr. Narlikar once recalled in a blog post “playing table tennis with Stephen Hawking (prior to his muscular atrophy)” when they were both students at the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Narlikar first gained international recognition when, alongside the British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, he proposed the ‘steady state’ model of the universe – a theory positing a timeless cosmos in which matter is continuously created. This stood in contrast to the dominant ‘Big Bang’ model, a term ironically coined by Hoyle to disparage it, which posits that the universe began at a single point in time.

Although subsequent observational evidence has since firmly supported the Big Bang theory, Dr. Narlikar remained a persistent and vocal critic of it, adapting and refining the steady state view throughout his career.

“He wore his remarkable learning in various disciplines very lightly and he combined to an unusual degree formidable scholarship with humility. He was well and truly a most luminous star of Indian science, who reflected the noblest of our civilisational traditions,” Congress communications in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted. He also shared an excerpt from the 1964 edition of Yojana – a Planning Commission publication – which debated whether India should lure the young Narlikar back from Cambridge.

In a rare feat, Dr. Narlikar was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1965, even before formally beginning his career in India at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. He later received the Padma Vibhushan in 2004.

Among his many accolades were the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the popularisation of science in 1996 and the prestigious Prix Jules Janssen from the French Astronomical Society in 2004.

Dr. Narlikar was also widely admired for his literary contributions. His science-fiction story Dhoomaketu (The Comet) was adapted into a film, while his autobiography Chaar Nagarantale Maze Vishwa (My Tale of Four Cities) was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Prize. His writing – marked by clarity, an avoidance of jargon, and philosophical depth – explored themes ranging from alien encounters to the moral quandaries arising from rapid technological progress.

He was frequently featured in science programmes on television in the 1990s and credited Carl Sagan’s outreach work, as well as the fiction of Sir Hoyle, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ray Bradbury, as key influences in his approach to communicating science.

Born to eminent parents – Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar, a mathematician at Benares Hindu University (now IIT-BHU), and Sumati Narlikar, a Sanskrit scholar – Dr. Narlikar received his early education in Varanasi before moving to the University of Cambridge, where he completed his Ph.D. under Sir Hoyle’s mentorship.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)