You can go for composite stones that are available these days in the market. These are artificial stone in various finishes and colors.
Marble generally is not suitable for the kitchen counters, as it has high absorption property. You can use it but with epoxy coating, if there is no other alternative.
Query is 2 months old, I donot know if my suggestion will help anymore.
I understand the costing of composite stone is deterrent.
For having a light colour finish on kitchen counter, you can look at a new product in market offered by Kajaria called Kajaria Vitronite available in the size of 800x2400/3000 size. I have used in one of my project an year back, its stainfree & easy to maintain.
Any tile fixing guy can fix it, reasonably priced.
You can probably go for non branded quartz where few are equally as good as the quartz by brands such as agl or kalinga. Another option would be full body tile by reputed tile brands such as somany/kajaria.
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