Bengaluru, Feb 1 (Reporter) The Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) welcomed the 2024-25 Interim Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. "On behalf of SICCI, we welcome the budget proposals, containing much-needed measures to accelerate growth in infrastructure, blue economy, agriculture and aerospace, defence and green energy sectors," SICCI President Arun Alagappan said in a statement. He said the budget proposal to promote private and public investment in post-harvest activities, including aggregation, modern storage, supply chains, primary and secondary processing, marketing and branding is a step in the right direction. Also, the initiatives of promoting new-age technology products in agriculture such as Nano-DAP will play a pivotal role in bringing down the fertilizer subsidy bills and improving farm economy, he said. The initiatives proposed in the budget for promoting research and innovation and deep technologies in the private sector are welcome, Alagappan said. He also welcomed the proposal for promoting climate-resilient activities for blue economy 2.0, a scheme for restoration and adaptation measures, and coastal aquaculture and mariculture with an integrated approach and the plan to set up 5 integrated aqua parks. Alagappan requested the setting up of 2 of these parks in Tamil Nadu, which boasts the second-longest coastline in India...////...