State the uses of bleaching powder.

1. It is used to disinfect water.
2. It is used for bleaching cotton and linen in textile industry and bleaching wood pulp in paper industry. It is also used for bleaching washed clothes in laundary, the bleaching action is due to chlorine released by it.
3. It is used as an oxidizing agent in many chemical industries.
4. It is used to prepare organic solvent chloroform which is also used as an anaesthetic.