General Knowledge and Current Affairs - 17

• Joint Russia-India Hypersonic BrahMos 2 missile to be ready by 2017.

• Sharad Pawar's reign as ICC president ends, Alan Isaac takes over.

• School-on-wheels launched in Delhi.

• Coca Cola and Pepsi contain alcohol: Study.

• TFM in soaps stands for "Total Fatty Matter".

• The immediate cause for the outbreak of the 1st World War was the murder of the Austrian crown prince Francis Ferdinand & his wife at Serajevo.

• Vietnam was partitioned into North and South Vietnam in the year 1954, the dividing line being the 17th parallel.

• May 2012: Goa topped the list of the states with highest per capita income in the country with a total per capita income of 1,92,652 rupees.

• Vitamin B2 is manufactured by fermentative action of the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum.

• Yeast is the best source of vitamin B complex.

• World's largest sugar producing nations in 2011:

1) Brazil

2) India

3) China

• Hindustan Steel Private Limited was set up on January 19, 1954.

• B.G. Tilak formed the Home Rule League in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1916.

• Annie Besant also started a Home Rule League in Madras (Chennai) in 1916.

• Pranab Mukherjee today (25-07-2012) took oath as the 13th President of India.

• Adolf Hitler kept Swastika as his party's emblem and his followers were known as Brown Shirts. He wrote a book called Mein Kampf (My struggle).

• Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on 26 July every year in honour of the Kargil War's Heroes. Kargil war was ended on 26 July 1999.

• Operation Safed Sagar was the codename assigned to the Indian Air Force's strike to support the Ground troops during Operation Vijay.

• Operation Meghdoot was the code-name for the Indian Armed Forces operation to capture the Siachen Glacier in the disputed Kashmir region.

• London has hosted the Olympic Games on two occasions, in 1908 and 1948, and hosts the third in 2012 (27 July 2012 to 12 August 2012).

• A spirometer is an apparatus for measuring the volume of air inspired and expired by the lungs.

• Tata Steel to import European-made products.

• In plants, the process of photosynthesis occurs in two phases, the photochemical (light) reaction and carbon assimilation (dark) reaction.

• Hotmail was launched in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith and acquired by Microsoft in 1997.

• Sushil Kumar Shinde takes charge as Home Minister.

• Microsoft is renaming its vintage Hotmail email service as Outlook.com with new features.

• Olympic record: Michael Phelps alone has 19 medals.

• Chidambaram takes over as finance minister.

♦♦♦♦♦