More than 50%  voter turnout has been recorded till 3pm in 49 assembly constituencies of Bihar in a peaceful atmosphere. The highest turnout has been recorded for Jamui district at 40.77% and the least has been for Khagaria at 30.55%.  The polling for the first phase started slow, with a turnout of 7.2% till 8 am, 12.82% till 9am and 20.15% till 10am, but picked up in the following hours, with 27.34% till 11am. As of 3pm, Bihar had a voter turnout of 50.39% in its first phase of polling. A total number of 13.5 million voters are expected to cast their votes for the 49 seats for which 583 candidates, including 54 women, candidates are in the fray. Voter turnout would be a crucial part as Bihar has seen a low turnout in the past.

Meanwhile, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate Vijay Kumar escaped unhurt after some unidentified persons fired at him on Monday in poll-bound Jamui District of Bihar. The police have detained one person in connection with the incident. Meanwhile, four people were injured when the NDA and grand alliance workers clashed near booth number 156 in Jamui.

Allahabad HC orders demolition of 3 projects in Noida, Greater Noida
The Allahabad High Court on Monday ordered demolition of three projects in Noida and Greater Noida areas. The Allahabad HC has ordered demolition of housing projects by real-estate major –Supertech, Amrapali and Jagat Taran –in Patwari village, Tughlakpur and Ithera, said to be belonging to a cemetry and land for pond. The HC order further states that the all the construction materials from the site should be removed with immediate effect and land be returned to the villagers within two months.

NSE launches initiatives to deepen financial markets
India’s largest stock exchange NSE has launched a new education drive in the central India. In its endeavour to promote financial market education, awareness and literacy in the central India, the NSE has joined hands with IPS Academy - a large educational institution from Madhya Pradesh. Highlights: 59 awareness programs in Central India completed in FY 2015 – 16.Both have signed an MOU recently in this regard. IPS Academy has started with a batch of 500 students; - this is the largest batch of students opting for NSE Certified Capital Market Professional (NCCMP) examination. The project is run at IPS Academy with the support of Dr. Vivek Kushwaha, Director, Institute of Business Management & Research, IPS Academy. The course consists of 3 parts: theoretical training, practical training & project work.

No more commissions for arms agents: Manohar ​Parrikar
Arms agents earning sales commissions could soon be passe, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said, adding that agents would have to be paid fixed fees while  representing foreign defence manufacturing companies. Parrikar, who was speaking during a public interaction event near here, late on Sunday, also said that guidelines for foreign defence manufacturing companies to enlist arms agents will be issued by the third or fourth week of October. "Giving percentage is very risky in India. Money can be paid to various people through this percentage, so we are permitting agents, but not by way of percentage or success fee or failure penalty. By fixed amount reasonable payment to the agency, you can keep an agency for following up your work," he said.

Sahitya Akademi to hold emergency meeting
The Sahitya Akademi will hold an emergency meeting on October 23 to discuss the alarming exodus of literary icons from the fraternity and writers returning their awards. "In the meeting, a decision will be taken after holding a discussion with the committee. One writer representing each language will be present in the meeting," Sahitya Akademi president Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari said. Till now, 15 writers have returned their awards to the Akademi since Hindi writer Uday Prakash first did so last month over the killing of Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi.

Madras HC insists on CISF cover for its campuses
Seeking an independent and neutral police force to maintain security of Madras high court premises, the first bench of the court on Monday asked the unwilling Tamil Nadu government and apprehensive lawyers that they should not stand on their ego. Directing the Centre to create a mechanism to deploy its forces, the bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam said: "Rebuilding of this institution is necessary. It is your institution." The bench was hearing suo motu PIL proceedings initiated after the court witnessed unruly scenes and obstruction caused to court works by lawyers agitating for declaration of Tamil as official language of the court and also for withdrawal of the contempt of court proceedings against two Madurai-based Bar leaders. Reiterating that there was clear lack of faith between lawyers and police, the judges said deployment of a neutral police force was only a temporary arrangement till faith was re-established. It could be initially for a period of six months, the court said.

Sensex slips 175 points as IT stocks tank
Market benchmark index, or Sensex, on Monday settled 175.40 points lower at 26,904.11 after surging over 225 points in early trade following a downward revision in Infosys Ltd’s dollar revenue forecast for the ongoing fiscal, which triggered a massive sell-off in the entire tech basket. The 50-issue Nifty also ended 46.10 points or 0.56% down at 8,143.60 after shuttling between 8,244.50 and 8,128.20. Major BSE losers included Lupin, Cipla, Sun Pharma, TCS, Dr Reddy’s, Wipro, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, ITC, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and Coal India.

Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon get ready for festive buying
Starting today, online retailers will offer big discounts, engage in a pricing war, create cheeky ads on social media and poke fun at their rivals, as they try to outdo each another in the race to generate record revenues in the most important sale period of the year. Snapdeal, the second-largest online retailer, is holding an electronics sale on Monday, offering discounts on smartphones, laptops, other electronics and home appliances. India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart will go head-to-head with Amazon India this week for online sales of smartphones, tablets, clothes and other products.