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Biel/Bienne

Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German: Biel, French: Bienne;, ; local dialect ; Bienna; Bienna; Belna) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the country's tenth-largest city by population. The Biel urban area has a population of around 100,000 inhabitants. Biel/Bienne is the capital of the Biel/Bienne administrative district. The city has been an industrial and watchmaking heart of Switzerland since the 19th century. With world-famous watch brands such as Rolex, Omega and Swatch based in Biel/Bienne, the city is one of the main centres of the Swiss watch industry and is also referred to as the "world capital of watchmaking".

Biel/Bienne lies on the language boundary between the French-speaking and German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and is bilingual throughout. Biel is the German name for the city whereas Bienne is its French counterpart. The city is often referred to in both languages simultaneously. Since 1 January 2005, the official name has been "Biel/Bienne". Until then, the town was officially named Biel or Bienne.

The city lies at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains area, guarding the only practical connection to Jura, on the northeastern shores of Lake Biel (Bielersee, Lac de Bienne), sharing the eastern tip of the lake with its sister town, Nidau. The cities of Neuchâtel, Solothurn, and Bern (the capital of Switzerland) lie southwest, northeast and southeast of Biel/Bienne. They all can be reached within about 30 minutes by train or car. The cities of Zurich, Basel and Lausanne can each be reached in about one hour by car or train.

Prehistoric settlements
The shoreline of Lake Biel has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic age. The remains of two neolithic settlements were found at Vingelz in 1874. The remains of the settlements became the Vingelz / Hafen archaeological site, which is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. East of the Vingelz site, a late Bronze Age settlement was also discovered. After the Roman conquest, the region was part of Germania Superior. During the Roman era the Roman road from Petinesca to Pierre Pertuis or Salodurum (now Solothurn) passed through the village of Mett, which is now part of Biel/Bienne. The foundations of buildings and a 4th-century cemetery in Mett come from a late Roman or an early medieval military guard station.

A theory holds that the toponym is derived from the name of Belenus, probably from a Roman era sanctuary of that deity at a sacred spring nearby. However, no surviving records or inscriptions confirm this theory. Another theory states that the town grew up around a late Roman fortress. While no trace of the fortress has been found, the foundations of several Roman buildings have been found east of the medieval town.

The town is mentioned in 1142 as Apud Belnam, which is taken as evidence for its derivation from Belenus. In popular etymology, the name has been connected with the German name for axe (Bernese German bieli), reflected in the two crossed axes in the town's coat of arms.

Foundation
In the 5th century, the area was invaded by the Burgundians, and by the medieval period became part of Upper Burgundy. During the 6th or 7th century, the Germanic speaking Alamanni moved into the area around Lake Biel, creating the language boundary that exists today. By the 8th century, the German-speaking population became the majority on the east end of the lake. In 999 Rudolph III of Burgundy granted lands around Lake Biel to the Bishopric of Basel, during the formative period of the Holy Roman Empire. Through the Bishop of Basel, the Counts of Neuchâtel and later the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau began to exercise their power in the foothills of the Jura Mountains. In 1140 the counts built Nidau Castle in the neighboring village of Nidau to help secure their land on the eastern end of the lake. The town was probably built by the Bishop of Basel, Heinrich II von Thun, between 1225 (mention of domum de Bilne) and 1230 (mention of in urbe mea de Beuna). Biel Castle was built either shortly before or shortly after the foundation of the town, to help support Nidau Castle.

Officially, Biel remained under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Basel throughout the 11th to 18th centuries. However, the early history of the town is filled with conflict between the town council and the Bishop's representative. In 1252, the town council partly succeeded in becoming a free imperial city. In 1275 King of Germany Rudolph of Habsburg granted Biel a town charter. The town's legal position was strengthened in 1296 when Bishop Peter Reich von Reichenstein signed an agreement with the town. This original agreement was strengthened in 1352 and remained in force until 1798.

The town's church, the Church of St. Benedict, was first mentioned in 1228. The current church was built in 1451–70 and is regarded, after Bern Cathedral, as the second most important late gothic building in the Canton of Bern.

An associate of the Swiss Confederation
While it officially remained part of the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Basel, starting in the 13th century Biel began making alliances with neighboring nobles and cities. In 1279 it allied with Bern. This first alliance was followed in 1311 by an alliance with Fribourg, a 1334 alliance with Solothurn, 1342 with Murten and 1395 with La Neuveville. The alliance with Bern became an eternal alliance in 1352, as Bern itself joined the Old Swiss Confederacy. Contradictory obligations to the Bishop of Basel, Jean de Vienne, and to the Imperial City of Bern led to a war in 1367. During the war, Biel was burned and the Bishop's castle was destroyed. After the extinction of the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau in 1375 the Bishop's power around the lake began to wane. In 1388, Bern gained control of Nidau Castle and the town of Nidau. However, the Bishop retained nominal power and influence in Biel. The two competing powers struggled for power in Biel for over 400 years and prevented the town from becoming completely independent from either powerful neighbor.

Biel was considered an associate of the Swiss Confederacy during the 15th century, and after its participation in the Burgundy Wars even came to be recognized as a full member by 1494.

Even though Biel remained nominally under the control of the Catholic Bishops of Basel, in 1528 it converted to the new Protestant faith.

From the French invasion to modern Biel/Bienne
The French Revolution changed the political situation in Biel/Bienne. In 1793, the French Revolutionary Army captured the Bishopric of Basel and brought the French into the lands near Biel. When they conquered the Moutier valley and Erguel in 1797 it brought the French practically to the gates of Biel/Bienne. On 6 February 1798, French troops marched through the open city gate while the population celebrated their arrival. Bienne and its neighboring communities were incorporated as the "Canton de Bienne" into the département du Mont-Terrible of the First French Republic. Two years later, in 1800, it went to the Département du Haut-Rhin. Under Mayor Sigmund Wildermeth (1765–1847) Biel strictly followed every dictate from Paris.

After the collapse of the French Empire, Biel sent Georg Friedrich Heilmann to the Congress of Vienna in 1814 to push for the creation of an independent Canton of Biel. However, he was unsuccessful and the Congress granted most of the territory of the Bishopric to the canton of Bern. Biel was able to resist unification until Bern agreed to retain some of Biel's historic privileges and rights. In 1815 Biel finally joined the Canton of Bern as part of the Oberamt of Nidau. The city council of Biel struggled to make it the capital of its own district. Finally in 1832 the Biel Amtsbezirk was created and Biel became the district capital. The democratic reforms of the Regeneration era helped the citizens of Biel to identify with and feel a part of the Canton of Bern.

By the beginning of the 20th century anarcho-syndicalist groups, which saw strikes and sabotage as legitimate means to bring about reform, began to influence the labor movement in Biel/Bienne. The first large scale strike was the construction workers strike of 1902. The following years were marked with bitterly fought labor disputes. The largest strike was the journeymen carpenters strike of 1907, which lasted almost a year. Also in 1907 labor secretary Gottfried Reimann from the Social Democratic Party was elected mayor. His election marked the first time that a Social Democrat was elected to such a powerful office in Switzerland.

The First World War meant a setback for the labor movement, even though Switzerland was not directly involved in the war. Wages were reduced significantly when the war started while inflation made everything more expensive. In July 1918, a demonstration of starving workers erupted into street riots that required military action to suppress.

In 1919 a Communist Party was founded in Biel, but it remained a minor party in the town. In 1921, the Social Democrats won a slim majority in the city councils. Under the leadership of the Social Democratic Mayor Guido Müller "Red Biel" began a series of socialist community experiments. During the 1930s the entire neighborhood around the train station was redeveloped according to the social planning theories of the era. The Volkshaus (People's House), built under the direction of Edward Lanz between 1928 and 1932, is an example of the "new building" style and a symbol of the Social Democratic era of the city.

In the years leading up to the Second World War, the Social Democrats began to lose power in the city. In the last year of the war, the Swiss Party of Labour gained nine seats on the city council and ended the Social Democrat majority. With the resignation of Mayor Müller in 1947, it would be almost thirty years (1976) before the Social Democrats had another mayor in Biel.

On the occasion of the secession of the canton of Jura in 1978, Biel had been asked to become its capital, but it remained with the canton of Bern.

The town was officially named Biel or Bienne until 2004, even though the bilingual Biel-Bienne was in common use. Since 2005, the official name has been Biel/Bienne, with forward slash.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the town's population was at 30,000 people. It doubled over the next 60 years, peaking at 65,000 in the mid-1960s. It declined gradually over the 1970s to 1990s, to below 49,000 in 2000, again rising slightly to just over 50,000 during the 2000s. Another 89,000 people live in the immediately surrounding urban agglomeration.

Topology
Biel/Bienne has an area of. Of this area, 1.7 km2 or 8.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.63 km2 or 45.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.65 km2 or 45.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.13 km2 or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and 0.14 km2 or 0.7% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 21.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 12.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 4.7% is used for growing crops and 2.0% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is at the southeastern foot of the Jura Mountains on the northeast end of Lake Biel. It consists of the village of Biel/Bienne, Vingelz (since 1900), Bözingen (since 1917), Madretsch and Mett (both since 1920).

On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Biel, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Biel/Bienne. It remained the capital of the new Verwaltungskreis.

Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules two Axes Argent in saltire.

Government
The Municipal Council (fr: Conseil municipal, de: Gemeinderat) constitutes the executive government of the City of Biel/Bienne and operates as a collegiate authority. It is composed of five councilors (Conseiller municipal/ Conseillère municipale, Gemeinderat/ Gemeinderätin), each presiding over a directorate. The president of the presidential directorate acts as mayor (fr: Maire, de: Stadtpräsident). In the mandate period 2021–2024 (législature, Legislatur) the Municipal Council is presided by Maire/ Stadtpräsident Erich Fehr. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the City Council (parliament) are carried by the Municipal Council. The regular election of the Municipal Council by any inhabitant valid to vote is held every four years. Any resident of Biel/Bienne allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the Municipal Council. The current mandate period is from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2024. The mayor is elected as such by public election by means of a system of Majorz, while the heads of the other directorates are assigned by the collegiate. The delegates are selected by means of a system of Proporz.

, Biel/Bienne's Municipal Council is made up of two representatives of the PS/SP (Social Democratic Party, of whom one is also the mayor), one member of the Grünes Bündnis (GB) (Green Party), one of the PRR (Les Radicaux Romands), and one of the UDC/SVP (Swiss People's Party), giving the left parties a majority of three out of five seats. The last regular election was held on 27 September 2020. The mayor has been reelected with 6889 votes (57.16%) and the voter turnout was 39.4%.

Barbara Labbé is Town Chancellor (chancelière municipale/ Stadtschreiberin) since, and Bertrand Cottier is Deputy Town Chancellor (vice-chancelier/ Vize-Stadtschreiber) since for the Municipal Council.

Parliament
The City Council (fr: Conseil de ville, de: Stadtrat), the city parliament, holds legislative power. It is made up of 60 members, with elections held every four years. The City Council decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the Municipal Council and the administration. The delegates are selected by means of a system of proportional representation.

The sessions of the City Council are public. Unlike members of the Municipal Council, members of the City Council are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of Biel/Bienne allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Council. The Parliament holds its meetings in the Stadtratssaal.

The last regular election of the City Council was held on 27 September 2020 for the mandate period (la législature) from 2021 to 2024. The voter turnout was 39.23%.

Currently the City Council consist of 18 members of the Social Democratic Party (PSR/SP) including 6 members of the French branch Parti Socialiste Romand (PSR) and 2 members of its junior parties JUSO/JS, 11 members of the Liberals (PRR/FDP) including 4 members of its French branch Parti Radical Romand (PRR), 11 members of the Swiss People's Party (UDC/SVP), 8 members of the Green Party (LV/Grüne), 4 Green Liberal Party (PVL/GLP), 2 members of the alliance called Passarelle, 2 members of the Evangelical People's Party (PEV/EVP), 2 members for the alliance of the two parties Conservative Democratic Party (PBD/BDP) from Biel/Bienne (BLB) and Christian Democratic People's Party (PDC/CVP), one member of the Swiss Party of Labour (POP/PdA), and one member of the Federal Democratic Union (UDF/EDU).

National Council
In the 2019 federal election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the SP/PS which received 26.4% (-5.7) of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the Green Party (24.1%, +10.2), the SVP/UDC (15.4%, -6.6), the glp/pvl (8.9%, +3.3), PLR (7.9%, -1.5), and the BDP/PBD (3.9%, -3.1). In the federal election a total of 11,096 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 35.9%.

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SP/PS which received 32.0% (+0.8) of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the SVP/UDC (22.0%, +2.1), the Green Party (13.9%, -0.8), PLR/FDP (9.4%, +1.4), the glp/pvl (8.9%, +3.3), and the BDP/PBD (7.0%). In the federal election a total of xxx votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 36.9%.

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SP/PS which received 31.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP/UDC (19.9%), the Green Party (14.7%) and the PLR/FDP (8.8%). In the federal election, a total of 12,363 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 39.0%.

International relations
Biel/Bienne is twinned with:

 * 🇩🇪 Iserlohn, Germany (since 1959)

Population
Biel/Bienne has a population of. , 28.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 3.8%. Migration accounted for 7.8%, while births and deaths accounted for −1.4%.

Of the population in the municipality, 15,339 or about 31.5% were born in Biel/Bienne and lived there in 2000. There were 8,990 or 18.5% who were born in the same canton, while 9,170 or 18.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 12,244 or 25.2% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 18.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.3%.

, there were 19,980 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 21,188 married individuals, 3,727 widows or widowers and 3,760 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 11,014 households that consist of only one person and 797 households with five or more people. , a total of 23,367 apartments (86.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 2,169 apartments (8.1%) were seasonally occupied and 1,398 apartments (5.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.2 new units per 1000 residents.

the average price to rent an average apartment in Biel/Bienne was 935.83 Swiss francs (CHF) per month. The average rate for a one-room apartment was 463.73 CHF, a two-room apartment was about 706.49 CHF, a three-room apartment was about 846.98 CHF and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 1749.16 CHF. The average apartment price in Biel/Bienne was 83.9% of the national average of 1116 CHF. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 2%.

Historic population
The historical population is given in the following chart:

Language

In 2000, a majority of the population spoke German (26,957 or 55.4%) as their first language. French was the second most common (13,695 or 28.1%) and Italian was third (2,925 or 6.0%). There were 37 people who spoke Romansh. German and French are both official languages of Biel/Bienne, which is the largest bilingual city in Switzerland.

In 2020, when asked specifically about the two official languages, 32,154 residents (56.8% of the population) mentioned German as their principal language, while 24,376 (43.2%) mentioned French.

In recent years the city has used its linguistic assets as an economic advantage, becoming the Swiss City of Communication. Several call centres have been created in or around Biel, in addition to the traditional businesses established in the city and surrounding area, which have always exported most of their production worldwide.

Religion
According to the, 19,191 people or 39.4% of the total population, belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 14,241 or 29.3% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 613 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.26% of the population), there were 87 individuals (or about 0.18% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 2,870 individuals (or about 5.90% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 61 individuals (or about 0.13% of the population) who were Jewish, and 3,156 (or about 6.49% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 329 individuals who were Buddhist, 235 individuals who were Hindu and 68 individuals who belonged to another church. 6,012 (or about 12.36% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 3,180 individuals (or about 6.54% of the population) did not answer the question.

Tourism
Biel/Bienne is located near the watch-making cities of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, which together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is home to numerous watchmaking factories. The Swatch Group has its worldwide headquarters in the old ASUAG building. The old city of Biel/Bienne includes a 15th-century Gothic church, guild halls, and fountains. Outside the old city, the Biel "Cultural Quarter" is home to the Neues Museum Biel and Schwab Museums and the CentrePasquArt.

The Jura mountains are north of the town and two funicular railways, the Bienne–Evilard Funicular and the Biel–Magglingen Funicular, link the city with the foothills. North-east of the town, the steep gorge of Taubenloch is a popular place to visit. West of the city is Lake Biel which is lined with parks and the town's harbor.

In 2016 a total of 50,646 visitors spent 87,937 lodging nights in Biel/Bienne.

Heritage sites of national significance
The Alte Krone/La vieille Couronne, the artist's studio Atelier Robert, the former Rockhall Manor, the main train station, the Jordi-Kocher House, the Catholic parish Church of St. Maria Immaculata, the Kongresshaus/Palais des Congrès (Convention Center), the Kontrollgebäude at Zentralstrasse 49 / Oberer Quai 2, the Neuhaus Museum with the Robert Foundation Collection, the Schwab Museum, the Swiss Reformed City Church, the administration building and montage hall for General Motors, the Volkshaus Building and the Waldleute Zunft Building are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Biel/Bienne and the Taubenlochschlucht canyon are both part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

World Heritage Site
It is home to the Vingelz / Hafen archaeological site. Vingelz / Hafen is a prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Vingelz / Hafen site is buried under mud near the shore of Lake Biel. It is one of the best preserved sites on the lake and has had minimal research. Based on the limited studies done on the village, it was occupied around 2970–2820 BC and again in 2780–2695 BC. About 60 wood samples have been dendrochronologically dated. The site was discovered in 1874 by Eduard von Fellenberg while he was excavating a dug-out canoe. In 1985 a series of test borings identified the two archaeological layers with a total thickness of about 90 cm. A text excavation in 1998 found textile remains and a complete axe handle and blade.

Business
The city and surrounding area are home to companies that design and manufacture specialised machinery and precision tools. Between 1936 and 1975 General Motors Suisse SA assembled over 300,000 General Motors automobiles here, mainly for the Swiss domestic market but also for export to neighboring countries and Yugoslavia.

 * Rolex produces movement and technical parts in the city.
 * Swatch Group has several of its brand headquarters here, especially Omega SA and Swatch.
 * The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH is located in this city.
 * Glycine Watch SA manufacturing and administration are located here.

, Biel/Bienne had an unemployment rate of 3.95%. , there were a total of 33,799 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 56 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 9,421 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 451 businesses in this sector. 24,322 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 2,267 businesses in this sector.

there were a total of 28,144 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 43, of which 21 were in agriculture and 22 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 8,945 of which 7,405 or (82.8%) were in manufacturing and 1,388 (15.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 19,156. In the tertiary sector; 4,371 or 22.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1,745 or 9.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 1,092 or 5.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 812 or 4.2% were in the information industry, 648 or 3.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 1,708 or 8.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 1,293 or 6.7% were in education and 3,591 or 18.7% were in health care.

, there were 17,680 workers who commuted into the municipality and 7,990 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.2 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 31.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 37.8% used a private car.

Education
In Biel/Bienne about 17,768 or (36.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 5,492 or (11.3%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 5,492 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.6% were Swiss men, 26.4% were Swiss women, 10.5% were non-Swiss men and 6.5% were non-Swiss women.

The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.

During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 5,733 students attending classes in Biel/Bienne. There were 27 kindergarten classes with a total of 497 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 36.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 66.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 79 primary classes and 1,470 students. Of the primary students, 32.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 53.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 53 lower secondary classes with a total of 981 students. There were 23.6% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 29.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language.

, there were 3,008 students in Biel/Bienne who came from another municipality, while 517 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Biel/Bienne is home to 3 libraries. The Stadtbibliothek Biel, the BFH Technik und Informatik TI Biel and the BFH Architektur, Holz und Bau AHB Biel. There was a combined total of 233,171 books or other media in the libraries, and in the same year a total of 501,646 items were loaned out.

Culture

The newspapers Bieler Tagblatt and Journal du Jura as well as the only totally bilingual German/French newspaper Biel-Bienne with its large free distribution within the greater area, are published in Biel.

The domicile of the Theater Biel Solothurn is situated in the old town.

The town is also known for its annual International Chess Festival.

The town of Biel/Bienne received the Wakker Prize in 2004.

Each June since 1959, Biel has hosted a 100 km Ultramarathon race, which is among the biggest races of its kind worldwide and forms a part of the European Ultramarathon Cup.

Transport

Biel/Bienne is very well connected to its region and to Switzerland as well.

The public transport in and around Biel/Bienne is operated by Verkehrsbetriebe Biel/Transports publics biennois, which is integrated into the fare network libero with coordinated timetables, which in itself covers the area of canton of Bern and Solothurn.

The fare network includes any mode of public transport, such as any kind of train (including the urban S-Bahn), PostAuto buses, trams, buses (either trolleybuses or motorized buses) and others. Fares are based on the number of zones crossed during a specified time and are independent of the mode of transport or the number of connections. Most part of Biel/Bienne and including Nidau belong to fare zone 300, including Vingelz/Vigneules in the southwest at the lake, but excluding Hohfluh on the Magglingen funicular and the Bözigerfeld/Champs-de-Boujean in the northeast, which belong to zone 301.

The circle fare zone 301 around Biel/Bienne also includes Tüscherz in the southwest, Hohfluh, Evilard, and Frinvillier (Friedliswart, through the Taubenlochschlucht) in the west, and Orpund, Scheuren, Schwadernau, Brügg, Aegerten, and Studen in the east, and Port, Ipsach, Bellmund, Jens, Merzligen, and Hermrigen in the south of the municipality.

Biel/Bienne railway station is not only the central network nucleus of Biel/Bienne, but also of the whole urban and inter-regional region. It connects the town to the regional, national and international railways network (Neuchâtel – Lausanne - Geneva, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Bern, Grenchen – Delémont – Basel, Solothurn – Olten – Luzern/Zürich – St. Gallen, and the canton of Jura). It is a central railway junction on the fast east–(south-)west line and on the Basel–Bern line. The station is Switzerland's thirteenth most busy railway station (about 52,0000 passengers per working day in 2016).

One funicular railways leads to the national sports center of Magglingen/Macolin on the 500 m higher Jura mountain in the west, and the other, the Bienne-Evilard Funicular, to the city hospital and to neighbouring municipality Evilard to northwest, both above the town on the eastern range of the Jura Mountains. The high, flat pastures and wood of Magglingen/Macolin span about 7 km from northeast to southwest at an altitude between 800 and 1031 m. The Magglingen/Macolin Funicular often leads to sunshine while Biel/Bienne is covered by low hanging clouds.

The port at the north-eastern end of Lake Biel is a starting point for leisurely journeys to the three lakes of Biel, Neuchâtel, and Murten/Morat through the Three-Lakes Landscape, which are all connected by navigable channels and rivers. The port is situated on the west side of the main railway station between the exit of the river Schüss/La Suze arriving from the Jura in the west through the Taubenlochschlucht (Swiss German for pigeon hole gorge) and the navigable Nidau-Büren Canal with connections as far as Solothurn.

Several bridges over the Nidau-Büren Canal connect the town to its south/eastern suburbs.

Biel/Bienne is well connected to other Swiss cities by several motorways (A6 to Bern, and via A5 to both, the Jura and Basel, Luzern, Zurich, St. Gallen).

The town is very well connected to all Swiss international airports: Geneva Airport (1:40h), EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (1:30h), and Zurich Airport (1:30h), also serve as international gateways, all reachable within about the same time by direct train from Biel/Bienne.

Sport

 * EHC Biel, the professional ice hockey team
 * FC Biel-Bienne, the football club.

Honoured citizen

 * Nicolas Hayek (1928–2010) a Lebanese-American Swiss businessman, co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of The Swatch Group. Promoted to honourable citizenship in 2004, official ceremony held on 19 February 2005

Born in Biel/Bienne

 * Middle Ages
 * Thomas Wyttenbach (c. 1472–1526), one of the reformers of the city of Biel during the Protestant Reformation.
 * Emanuel Witz (1717–1797), a Swiss painter
 * Eduard Blösch (1807–1866), a Swiss politician, President of the Swiss National Council 1855–1856
 * Léo-Paul Robert (1851–1923), Swiss painter

 * 19th C
 * Karl Walser (1877–1943), a Swiss painter, stage designer, illustrator, muralist and artist
 * Robert Walser (1878–1956), a German-speaking Swiss writer
 * Ernst Dubach (1881–1982), a Swiss racing cyclist, the Swiss National Road Race champion in 1902
 * Louis Rivier (1885–1963), a Swiss painter, writer, and stained glass artist
 * Hans Zulliger (1893–1965), a Swiss teacher, child psychoanalyst and author
 * Anna Renfer (1896-1984), a Swiss composer

 * 20th C
 * Jean-Louis Jeanmaire (1910–1992), a brigadier in the Swiss army who passed highly classified Swiss military secrets to the Soviet Union from 1962 until he retired in 1975
 * Roland Kuhn (1912–2005), a Swiss psychiatrist who discovered that the drug imipramine had antidepressant properties
 * Walter Kistler (1918–2015), a physicist, inventor and philanthropist
 * Maurice Edmond Müller (1918–2009), orthopedic surgeon, developed internal fixation techniques to fix bone fractures
 * Géo Voumard (1920–2008), a Swiss jazz pianist and composer, co-founded the Montreux Jazz Festival
 * Felix Villars (1921–2002), American professor of physics at MIT, worked in quantum field theory, emigrated in 1949
 * Henriette Grindat (1923–1986), a Swiss photographer, contributed to artistic photography, taking a Surrealist approach
 * René Felber (1933–2020), a Swiss politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council 1987–1993
 * Raymond Bruckert (born 1935) – writer of novels and educational books
 * Ernst Thomke (born 1939), businessman, a corporate saviour by interventions
 * Franz Hohler (born 1943), author of one-man and satirical programs for TV and radio, and cabaret artist.
 * Christian Philipp Müller (born 1957), a Swiss artist
 * Thomas Jordan (born 1963), chairman of the Swiss National Bank
 * Ian Christe (born 1970), an author, disc jockey and the publisher of Bazillion Points Books
 * Denis Simonet (born 1985), a Swiss Pirate Party politician
 * Nemo Mettler (born 1999), singer and rapper. Swiss representative and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

 * Sport
 * Nicolas Bührer (born 1944) a Swiss entrepreneur and former racing driver
 * Enzo Calderari (born 1952) a Swiss entrepreneur and former racing driver
 * Robert Lüthi (born 1958) a retired Swiss footballer, played 291 games for Neuchâtel Xamax
 * Étienne Dagon (born 1960) a former breaststroke swimmer, bronze medallist at the 1984 Summer Olympics
 * Sven Christ (born 1973) a Swiss football manager and former football player with 427 games
 * Andréa Zimmermann (born 1976) a Swiss ski mountaineer and mountain runner
 * Yannick Pelletier (born 1976) a Swiss chess player who lives in Paris
 * Marcel Fischer (born 1978) a Swiss fencer, gold medallist in the Men's Épée Individual at the 2004 Summer Olympics
 * Ares (Marco Jaggi) (born 1980) a Swiss professional wrestler and wrestling trainer
 * Raphael Nuzzolo (born 1983) a Swiss professional footballer, played over 475 games
 * Martina Kocher (born 1985) a Swiss luger, competed in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics
 * Pietro Di Nardo (born 1990) a Swiss professional footballer, played over 250 games
 * Gregory Hofmann (born 1992) a professional ice hockey player
 * Nicola Todeschini (born 1997) a Swiss figure skater

 * Music
 * Nemo Mettler (born 1999), Swiss rapper and winner of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest

Lived in Biel/Bienne

 * Paul Käser (1904–??) a Swiss rower active in the 1920s and 1930s
 * Henri Dubuis (1906–2003) a Swiss architect, designed and built the Volkshaus in Biel/Bienne in 1932
 * Daniel Gisiger (born 1954) a retired Swiss road and track cyclist
 * Jonas Kocher (born 1977) a musician, accordionist and composer
 * Arno Camenisch (born 1978) a Swiss writer in German and Romansh
 * Henri Laaksonen (born 1992) a Swiss-Finnish tennis player
 * Oliver Hegi (born 1993) a Swiss male artistic gymnast and member of the national team
 * Jil Teichmann (born 1997) a Spanish-born Swiss tennis player

title: Biel/Bienne


text:
Swap (finance)

In finance, a swap is an agreement between two counterparties to exchange financial instruments, cashflows, or payments for a certain time. The instruments can be almost anything but most swaps involve cash based on a notional principal amount.

The general swap can also be seen as a series of forward contracts through which two parties exchange financial instruments, resulting in a common series of exchange dates and two streams of instruments, the legs of the swap. The legs can be almost anything but usually one leg involves cash flows based on a notional principal amount that both parties agree to. This principal usually does not change hands during or at the end of the swap; this is contrary to a future, a forward or an option.

In practice one leg is generally fixed while the other is variable, that is determined by an uncertain variable such as a benchmark interest rate, a foreign exchange rate, an index price, or a commodity price.

Swaps are primarily over-the-counter contracts between companies or financial institutions. Retail investors do not generally engage in swaps.

Example
A mortgage holder is paying a floating interest rate on their mortgage but expects this rate to go up in the future. Another mortgage holder is paying a fixed rate but expects rates to fall in the future. They enter a fixed-for-floating swap agreement. Both mortgage holders agree on a notional principal amount and maturity date and agree to take on each other's payment obligations. The first mortgage holder from now on is paying a fixed rate to the second mortgage holder while receiving a floating rate. By using a swap, both parties effectively changed their mortgage terms to their preferred interest mode while neither party had to renegotiate terms with their mortgage lenders.

Considering the next payment only, both parties might as well have entered a fixed-for-floating forward contract. For the payment after that another forward contract whose terms are the same, i.e. same notional amount and fixed-for-floating, and so on. The swap contract therefore, can be seen as a series of forward contracts. In the end there are two streams of cash flows, one from the party who is always paying a fixed interest on the notional amount, the fixed leg of the swap, the other from the party who agreed to pay the floating rate, the floating leg.

Swaps can be used to hedge certain risks such as interest rate risk, or to speculate on changes in the expected direction of underlying prices.

History
Swaps were first introduced to the public in 1981 when IBM and the World Bank entered into a swap agreement. Today, swaps are among the most heavily traded financial contracts in the world: the total amount of interest rates and currency swaps outstanding was more than $348 trillion in 2010, according to Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Most swaps are traded over-the-counter (OTC), "tailor-made" for the counterparties. The Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, however, envisions a multilateral platform for swap quoting, the swaps execution facility (SEF), and mandates that swaps be reported to and cleared through exchanges or clearing houses which subsequently led to the formation of swap data repositories (SDRs), a central facility for swap data reporting and recordkeeping. Data vendors, such as Bloomberg, and big exchanges, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the largest U.S. futures market, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, registered to become SDRs. They started to list some types of swaps, swaptions and swap futures on their platforms. Other exchanges followed, such as the IntercontinentalExchange and Frankfurt-based Eurex AG.

According to the 2018 SEF Market Share Statistics Bloomberg dominates the credit rate market with 80% share, TP dominates the FX dealer to dealer market (46% share), Reuters dominates the FX dealer to client market (50% share), Tradeweb is strongest in the vanilla interest rate market (38% share), TP the biggest platform in the basis swap market (53% share), BGC dominates both the swaption and XCS markets, Tradition is the biggest platform for Caps and Floors (55% share).

Size of market
While the market for currency swaps developed first, the interest rate swap market has surpassed it, measured by notional principal, "a reference amount of principal for determining interest payments."

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) publishes statistics on the notional amounts outstanding in the OTC derivatives market. At the end of 2006, this was USD 415.2 trillion, more than 8.5 times the 2006 gross world product. However, since the cash flow generated by a swap is equal to an interest rate times that notional amount, the cash flow generated from swaps is a substantial fraction of but much less than the gross world product—which is also a cash-flow measure. The majority of this (USD 292.0 trillion) was due to interest rate swaps. These split by currency as:

 * Source: "The Global OTC Derivatives Market at end-December 2004", BIS,, "OTC Derivatives Market Activity in the Second Half of 2006", BIS,

Major Swap Participant
A Major Swap Participant (MSP, or sometimes Swap Bank) is a generic term to describe a financial institution that facilitates swaps between counterparties. It maintains a substantial position in swaps for any of the major swap categories. A swap bank can be an international commercial bank, an investment bank, a merchant bank, or an independent operator. A swap bank serves as either a swap broker or swap dealer. As a broker, the swap bank matches counterparties but does not assume any risk of the swap. The swap broker receives a commission for this service. Today, most swap banks serve as dealers or market makers. As a market maker, a swap bank is willing to accept either side of a currency swap, and then later on-sell it, or match it with a counterparty. In this capacity, the swap bank assumes a position in the swap and therefore assumes some risks. The dealer capacity is obviously more risky, and the swap bank would receive a portion of the cash flows passed through it to compensate it for bearing this risk.

Swap market efficiency
The two primary reasons for a counterparty to use a currency swap are to obtain debt financing in the swapped currency at an interest cost reduction brought about through comparative advantages each counterparty has in its national capital market, and/or the benefit of hedging long-run exchange rate exposure. These reasons seem straightforward and difficult to argue with, especially to the extent that name recognition is truly important in raising funds in the international bond market. Firms using currency swaps have statistically higher levels of long-term foreign-denominated debt than firms that use no currency derivatives. Conversely, the primary users of currency swaps are non-financial, global firms with long-term foreign-currency financing needs. From a foreign investor's perspective, valuation of foreign-currency debt would exclude the exposure effect that a domestic investor would see for such debt. Financing foreign-currency debt using domestic currency and a currency swap is therefore superior to financing directly with foreign-currency debt.

The two primary reasons for swapping interest rates are to better match maturities of assets and liabilities and/or to obtain a cost savings via the quality spread differential (QSD). Empirical evidence suggests that the spread between AAA-rated commercial paper (floating) and A-rated commercial is slightly less than the spread between AAA-rated five-year obligation (fixed) and an A-rated obligation of the same tenor. These findings suggest that firms with lower (higher) credit ratings are more likely to pay fixed (floating) in swaps, and fixed-rate payers would use more short-term debt and have shorter debt maturity than floating-rate payers. In particular, the A-rated firm would borrow using commercial paper at a spread over the AAA rate and enter into a (short-term) fixed-for-floating swap as payer.

Types of swaps
The generic types of swaps, in order of their quantitative importance, are: interest rate swaps, basis swaps, currency swaps, inflation swaps, credit default swaps, commodity swaps and equity swaps. There are also many other types of swaps.

Interest rate swaps
The most common type of swap is an interest rate swap. Some companies may have comparative advantage in fixed rate markets, while other companies have a comparative advantage in floating rate markets. When companies want to borrow, they look for cheap borrowing, i.e. from the market where they have comparative advantage. However, this may lead to a company borrowing fixed when it wants floating or borrowing floating when it wants fixed. This is where a swap comes in. A swap has the effect of transforming a fixed rate loan into a floating rate loan or vice versa.

For example, party B makes periodic interest payments to party A based on a variable interest rate of LIBOR +70 basis points. Party A in return makes periodic interest payments based on a fixed rate of 8.65%. The payments are calculated over the notional amount. The first rate is called variable because it is reset at the beginning of each interest calculation period to the then current reference rate, such as LIBOR. In reality, the actual rate received by A and B is slightly lower due to a bank taking a spread.

Basis swaps
A basis swap involves exchanging floating interest rates based on different money markets. The principal is not exchanged. The swap effectively limits the interest-rate risk as a result of having differing lending and borrowing rates.

Currency swaps
A currency swap involves exchanging principal and fixed rate interest payments on a loan in one currency for principal and fixed rate interest payments on an equal loan in another currency. Just like interest rate swaps, the currency swaps are also motivated by comparative advantage. Currency swaps entail swapping both principal and interest between the parties, with the cashflows in one direction being in a different currency than those in the opposite direction. It is also a very crucial uniform pattern in individuals and customers.

Inflation swaps
An inflation-linked swap involves exchanging a fixed rate on a principal for an inflation index expressed in monetary terms. The primary objective is to hedge against inflation and interest-rate risk.

Commodity swaps
A commodity swap is an agreement whereby a floating (or market or spot) price is exchanged for a fixed price over a specified period. The vast majority of commodity swaps involve crude oil.

Credit default swap
An agreement whereby the payer periodically pays premiums, sometimes also or only a one-off or initial premium, to the protection seller on a notional principal for a period of time so long as a specified credit event has not occurred. The credit event can refer to a single asset or a basket of assets, usually debt obligations. In the event of default, the payer receives compensation, for example the principal, possibly plus all fixed rate payments until the end of the swap agreement, or any other way that suits the protection buyer or both counterparties. The primary objective of a CDS is to transfer one party's credit exposure to another party.

Subordinated risk swaps
A subordinated risk swap (SRS), or equity risk swap, is a contract in which the buyer (or equity holder) pays a premium to the seller (or silent holder) for the option to transfer certain risks. These can include any form of equity, management or legal risk of the underlying (for example a company). Through execution the equity holder can (for example) transfer shares, management responsibilities or else. Thus, general and special entrepreneurial risks can be managed, assigned or prematurely hedged. Those instruments are traded over-the-counter (OTC) and there are only a few specialized investors worldwide.

Equity swap
An agreement to exchange future cash flows between two parties where one leg is an equity-based cash flow such as the performance of a stock asset, a basket of stocks or a stock index. The other leg is typically a fixed-income cash flow such as a benchmark interest rate.

Other variations
There are myriad different variations on the vanilla swap structure, which are limited only by the imagination of financial engineers and the desire of corporate treasurers and fund managers for exotic structures.
 * A total return swap is a swap in which party A pays the total return of an asset, and party B makes periodic interest payments. The total return is the capital gain or loss, plus any interest or dividend payments. Note that if the total return is negative, then party A receives this amount from party B. The parties have exposure to the return of the underlying stock or index, without having to hold the underlying assets. The profit or loss of party B is the same for him as actually owning the underlying asset.
 * An option on a swap is called a swaption. These provide one party with the right but not the obligation at a future time to enter into a swap.
 * A variance swap is an over-the-counter instrument that allows investors to trade future realized (or historical) volatility against current implied volatility.
 * A constant maturity swap (CMS) is a swap that allows the purchaser to fix the duration of received flows on a swap.
 * An amortizing swap is usually an interest rate swap in which the notional principal for the interest payments declines during the life of the swap, perhaps at a rate tied to the prepayment of a mortgage or to an interest rate benchmark such as the LIBOR. It is suitable to those customers of banks who want to manage the interest rate risk involved in predicted funding requirement, or investment programs.
 * A zero coupon swap is of use to those entities which have their liabilities denominated in floating rates but at the same time would like to conserve cash for operational purposes.
 * A deferred rate swap is particularly attractive to those users of funds that need funds immediately but do not consider the current rates of interest very attractive and feel that the rates may fall in future.
 * An accreting swap is used by banks which have agreed to lend increasing sums over time to its customers so that they may fund projects.
 * A forward swap is an agreement created through the synthesis of two swaps differing in duration for the purpose of fulfilling the specific time-frame needs of an investor. Also referred to as a forward start swap, delayed start swap, and a deferred start swap.
 * A quanto swap is a cash-settled, cross-currency interest rate swap in which one counterparty pays a foreign interest rate to the other, but the notional amount is in domestic currency. The second party may be paying a fixed or floating rate. For example, a swap in which the notional amount is denominated in Canadian dollars, but where the floating rate is set as USD LIBOR, would be considered a quanto swap. Quanto swaps are known as differential or rate-differential or diff swaps.
 * A range accrual swap (or range accrual note) is an agreement to pay a fixed or floating rate while receiving cash flows from a fixed or floating rate which are accrued only on those days where the second rate falls within a preagreed range. The received payments are maximized when the second rate stays entirely within the range for the duration of the swap.
 * A three-zone digital swap is a generalization of the range accrual swap, the payer of a fixed rate receives a floating rate if that rate stays within a certain preagreed range, or a fixed rate if the floating rate goes above the range, or a different fixed rate if the floating rate falls below the range.

Valuation and Pricing
The value of a swap is the net present value (NPV) of all expected future cash flows, essentially the difference in leg values. A swap is thus "worth zero" when it is first initiated, otherwise one party would be at an advantage, and arbitrage would be possible; however after this time its value may become positive or negative.

While this principle holds true for any swap, the following discussion is for plain vanilla interest rate swaps and is representative of pure rational pricing as it excludes credit risk. For interest rate swaps, there are in fact two methods, which will (must) return the same value: in terms of bond prices, or as a portfolio of forward contracts. The fact that these methods agree, underscores the fact that rational pricing will apply between instruments also.

Arbitrage arguments
As mentioned, to be arbitrage free, the terms of a swap contract are such that, initially, the NPV of these future cash flows is equal to zero. Where this is not the case, arbitrage would be possible.

For example, consider a plain vanilla fixed-to-floating interest rate swap where Party A pays a fixed rate, and Party B pays a floating rate. In such an agreement the fixed rate would be such that the present value of future fixed rate payments by Party A are equal to the present value of the expected future floating rate payments (i.e. the NPV is zero). Where this is not the case, an Arbitrageur, C, could:
 * 1) assume the position with the lower present value of payments, and borrow funds equal to this present value
 * 2) meet the cash flow obligations on the position by using the borrowed funds, and receive the corresponding payments - which have a higher present value
 * 3) use the received payments to repay the debt on the borrowed funds
 * 4) pocket the difference - where the difference between the present value of the loan and the present value of the inflows is the arbitrage profit.

Subsequently, once traded, the price of the Swap must equate to the price of the various corresponding instruments as mentioned above. Where this is not true, an arbitrageur could similarly short sell the overpriced instrument, and use the proceeds to purchase the correctly priced instrument, pocket the difference, and then use payments generated to service the instrument which he is short.

Using bond prices
While principal payments are not exchanged in an interest rate swap, assuming that these are received and paid at the end of the swap does not change its value. Thus, from the point of view of the floating-rate payer, a swap is equivalent to a long position in a fixed-rate bond (i.e. receiving fixed interest payments), and a short position in a floating rate note (i.e. making floating interest payments):

 * $$V_\mathrm{swap} = B_\mathrm{fixed} - B_\mathrm{floating} \, $$

From the point of view of the fixed-rate payer, the swap can be viewed as having the opposite positions. That is,

 * $$V_\mathrm{swap} = B_\mathrm{floating} - B_\mathrm{fixed} \, $$

Similarly, currency swaps can be regarded as having positions in bonds whose cash flows correspond to those in the swap. Thus, the home currency value is:

 * $$V_\mathrm{swap} = B_\mathrm{domestic} - S_0 B_\mathrm{foreign}$$, where $$B_\mathrm{domestic}$$ is the domestic cash flows of the swap, $$B_\mathrm{foreign}$$ is the foreign cash flows of the LIBOR is the rate of interest offered by banks on deposit from other banks in the eurocurrency market. One-month LIBOR is the rate offered for 1-month deposits, 3-month LIBOR for three months deposits, etc.

LIBOR rates are determined by trading between banks and change continuously as economic conditions change. Just like the prime rate of interest quoted in the domestic market, LIBOR is a reference rate of interest in the international market.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Swap (finance)


text:
Talk:List of unusual units of measurement

"Banana for scale"
Would it be worth adding "banana" as an unusual unit of measurement for length/distance? The concept of "banana for scale" is something that has become quite common in popular culture as a jokey, "desperate" measure of length and thus is possibly worth mentioning, at least briefly, as it is a much smaller-scale version of the "American football field" as a relative sense of measurement.

Sources: https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/banana-for-scale-meme-history/ https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale 83.146.12.0 (talk) 12:55, 25 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I think the jokeyness counts against including it. More importantly, though, this list is for units of measurement, not objects for scale. The difference is this: it's common to include a banana in an image for scale. It is not so common to say that an object is 5 bananas wide. The latter is a unit of measurement, the former is not. In contrast, you do see someone describe something as the length of 5 football fields.--Srleffler (talk) 17:42, 25 November 2023 (UTC)
 * PS. This has come up before.--Srleffler (talk) 17:46, 25 November 2023 (UTC)

Smoot
I was surprised to see the smoot added, as I had assumed it was always here! It was moved 7 November 2006 to List of humorous units of measurement, where it remains – with more detail. —Tamfang (talk) 03:56, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

Other measurements
Is there a criteria for what should go into this article? The potential for this category is near endless, but I'm thinking of older measurements no longer commonly used, like furlong, league, fathom, surveyors chain (66 feet), rod, rood, perch, barley corns, etc. Supposedly there's a definition of "jiffy". Nerfer (talk) 19:57, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * The criteria are more limited than you might think. Obsolete units belong at List of obsolete units of measurement. Humorous units belong at List of humorous units of measurement. This list is for serious units that are actually still used to measure things, but which are in one way or another unusual. Jiffy is on the list. None of the others you mention fit the criteria.--Srleffler (talk) 05:23, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Under Fathom I read : Most modern nautical charts indicate depth in metres. However, the U.S. Hydrographic Office uses feet and fathoms (with a reference over there). Doesn't that make the fathom a "serious unit actually still used to measure things but in one way or another unusual" ? (Unusual, in this case, in that it is now obsolete everywhere except on U.S. nautical charts, where it is still used to measure depths, as it used to be on the Admiralty charts I used, oh, maybe 50 years ago, when sailing a Glénans cutter between North Brittany and the Channel Islands ["Heights in feet, depths in fathoms and feet"]). (Of course the French charts were in metres, but we also had British large-scale charts for the islands.) — Tonymec (talk) 03:19, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
 * This page defines an unusual unit of measurement as a "unit of measurement that does not form part of a coherent system of measurement". The fathom is part of the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, and therefore is not unusual, as that term is defined here.--Srleffler (talk) 05:31, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Hm. Well, a "hand" is defined here as 4 inches, or one-third of a foot. Doesn't that make it part of the same coherent measurement system ? — Tonymec (talk) 05:42, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Hand (unit) doesn't say that the hand is part of the imperial or US customary system of units. Fathom does.--Srleffler (talk) 07:55, 10 February 2024 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Berlin Blockade

Difference between blockade and airlift
I am pretty sure that the Berlin Airlift and the Berlin Blockade are two completely separate things. There isn't a page for the Berlin Airlift and the info on this page does not relate to the blockade, only the airlift. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hardtanker (talk • contribs) 22:43, 8 May 2018 (UTC)

 * The two topics are VERY closely related, as there would have been absolutely no need for an airlift if there hadn't been a blockade.
 * The obvious being said, I agree that this article, while covering the airlift in a quite good fashion, is highly deficient in covering the blockade, its reasons, effects (including the counter-blockade mentioned in at least one documentary I've viewed on the matter), and the process of the ending of it, where Stalin sought to end it in a manner that might save a little of his (by then very tarnished) reputation.
 * Signature: Autokefal Dialytiker (talk) 10:37, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

Decision for an airlift: Confusion over units
In "Decision for an airlift" the article cites "a minimum daily ration of 1,990 kilocalories (July 1948)" but I don't see how this can be right, and suspect the intended meaning is 1,990 *calories* (per person per day). I will gladly correct it if there's no objection. Victimofleisure (talk) 19:54, 26 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Kilocalories is exactly correct. The problem is that too many people use the unit "calories" where it should be "kilocalories", and this leads many people (apparently you included) to think what you just wrote - which is just plainly wrong.
 * Happily, I can see that the article (at least at present) is still written with the correct version of the unit. (Another point is that the calorie is an imprecise unit, better replaced by Joules, but obviously not here, as this is in a historical context, as a quote...)
 * My signature: Autokefal Dialytiker (talk) 18:51, 11 May 2019 (UTC)

Not a GA yet
This article still has uncited paras and citation needed tags. It therefore will not pass GAN. I suggest it is withdrawn until it is ready. Cheers, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 04:02, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Spurious Lovett Credit
Robert Lovett, who is listed above Clay and Robertson but otherwise unmentioned in the article, had nothing to do with the airlift. According to Clay biographer Jean Edward Smith, Lovett was part of an anti-Clay cabal at State, consisting of himself, Marshall and Kennan, who tried to replace Clay with Bedell Smith, in January 1948, but were blocked by Congress. On 24 June Clay was firmly in charge. The credit Lovett gets is spurious. Unless there's objection, I move to delete it. J M Rice (talk) 05:49, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

>>>Tons?
Throughout the article, amounts of goods delivered by the Airlift are expressed in "tons". What are those? Are they short tons (2000 lbs./907.18474 kg)? Are they long tons (2240 lbs./1016.0469088 kg)? Are they metric tons (2204.622621848776 lbs./1000 kg)? That needs to be made clear, and whichever tons they are, they need to be converted to the other ones. Kelisi (talk) 06:10, 25 November 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Berlin Blockade


text:
Auburndale

Auburndale may refer to:

 * Auburndale, Alberta
 * Auburndale, Nova Scotia
 * Auburndale, Florida
 * Auburndale, Louisville, Kentucky, a neighborhood
 * Auburndale, Massachusetts
 * Auburndale station (MBTA)
 * Auburndale (town), Wisconsin
 * Auburndale, Wisconsin, a village within the town
 * Auburndale, Queens, a New York City neighborhood
 * Auburndale station (LIRR)

title: Auburndale


text:
Airlift (disambiguation)

Airlift is the act of transporting people or cargo from point to point using aircraft.

Airlift may also refer to:
 * Airlift (company), a Norwegian helicopter operator
 * Airlift (dredging device), a suction device for moving sand and silt underwater
 * Airlift (film), a 2016 film about the evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait, starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur
 * Lift (force), the upwards force generated resulting from the pressure difference when air moves over an airfoil.

title: Airlift (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Dubna

Untitled
Why only some elements and why only beyond number 103? Is the information about the details of the institute research important for the article about a city? What has the naming controversy to do with the city of Dubna?

Lenin Statue
Why no mention of the Lenin statue in Dubna?

There is...

Addition of a map and/or photo?
I think it would add greatly to this article if a map of its location was added. A photograph of something in the city might also be added to improve the quality of this article.
 * I've tagged the article with the Image request boxes. Grimhelm 06:26, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Location
This statement "Being under immediate jurisdiction of Moscow Oblast, it is situated on the territory of Taldomsky District." Is wrong. Dubna is not on the territory of Taldomsky District. It is on territory of Dubna (urban district or `gorodskoy okrug` in russian). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.200.28.70 (talk) 22:46, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
 * To be true - Dubna borders Taldomsky District. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.200.28.70 (talk) 22:49, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
 * "Borders" does not mean "to be on the territory". I removed the fragment in question.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 17:30, December 29, 2008 (UTC)

Leonid Shirkov
I couldn't get any info on him by googling "Leonid Shirkov" or in Russian: Леонид Ширков философ. Maybe the name is wrong? Yurivict (talk)
 * It most likely is a hoax. Removed as unsourced.  Will not object to restoring the entry if it's properly sourced.  Thanks!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 17:19, January 7, 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dubna


text:
List of monarchs of Wessex

This is a list of monarchs of the Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) until 886 AD. For later monarchs, see the List of English monarchs. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure.

The names are given in modern English form followed by the names and titles (as far as is known) in contemporary Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Latin, the prevalent languages of record at the time in England.

This was a period in which spellings varied widely, even within a document. A number of variations of the details below exist. Among these are the preference between the runic character thorn (Þ, lower-case þ, from the rune of the same name) and the letter eth (Ð or ð), both of which are equivalent to modern ⟨th⟩ and were interchangeable. They were used indiscriminately for voiced and unvoiced ⟨th⟩ sounds, unlike in modern Icelandic. Thorn tended to be more used in the south (Wessex) and eth in the North (Mercia and Northumbria). Separate letters th were preferred in the earliest period in Northern texts, and returned to dominate by the Middle English period onward.

The character ⁊ (Tironian et) was used as the ampersand (&) in contemporary Anglo-Saxon writings. The era pre-dates the emergence of some forms of writing accepted today; notably rare were lower case characters, and the letters W and U. W was occasionally rendered VV (later UU), but the runic character wynn (Ƿ or ƿ) was a common way of writing the /w/ sound. Again the West Saxons initially preferred the character derived from a rune, and the Angles/Engle preferred the Latin-derived lettering VV, consistent with the thorn versus eth usage pattern.

Except in manuscripts, runic letters were an Anglian phenomenon. The early Engle restricted the use of runes to monuments, whereas the Saxons adopted wynn and thorn for sounds which did not have a Latin equivalent. Otherwise they were not used in Wessex.

title: List of monarchs of Wessex


text:
List of hospitals in India

This is a list of notable hospitals in India.

Various medical colleges and medicine related educational institutes also serve as hospitals. For those, refer List of medical colleges in India. For a list of psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes in India refer List of psychiatric hospitals in India.

Chain hospitals
Various chain or network hospitals operate in various cities of India. These are:
 * Apollo Hospitals
 * Asian Institute of Medical Sciences
 * Aster DM Healthcare
 * Billroth Hospitals
 * Care Hospitals
 * Command Hospital
 * Council of Christian Hospitals
 * Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital
 * Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre
 * Devadoss Hospital
 * Fortis Healthcare
 * Global Hospitals Group
 * Hinduja Healthcare Limited
 * Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences
 * L. V. Prasad Eye Institutes
 * LifeSpring Hospitals
 * Max Healthcare
 * Manipal Hospitals
 * Kailash Group of Hospitals
 * Medica Hospitals
 * Metro Group of Hospitals
 * Narayana Health
 * Paras Healthcare
 * Regional Cancer Centre
 * Sahyadri Hospital
 * Shalby Hospital
 * Sir Jamshetjee Jeejebhoy Group of Hospitals
 * Sterling Hospitals
 * Vasan Healthcare
 * Wockhardt Hospitals

Anantapuram

 * Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi

Tirupati

 * Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS)

Vijayawada

 * Manipal Hospitals
 * Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences
 * L. V. Prasad Eye Institute
 * Siddhartha Medical College, NTR University of Health Sciences
 * Rainbow Hospitals
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre

Visakhapatnam

 * Apollo Hospitals, Visakhapatnam
 * Care Hospitals
 * Government ENT Hospital, Visakhapatnam
 * Government Regional Eye Hospital
 * Government TB and Chest Hospital, Visakhapatnam
 * Government Victoria Hospital
 * Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital & Research Centre
 * Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences
 * King George Hospital
 * L. V. Prasad Eye Institute
 * Rainbow Hospitals
 * Rani Chandramani Devi Government Hospital
 * SevenHills Hospital
 * Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences

Guwahati

 * Gauhati Medical College and Hospital
 * GNRC
 * Narayana Superspeciality Hospital
 * Apollo Hospitals

Dibrugarh

 * Assam Medical College

Silchar

 * SMCH – Silchar Medical College and Hospital

Jorhat

 * Jorhat Medical College and Hospital
 * Medical Institute Jorhat

Tezpur

 * Tezpur Medical College and Hospital
 * Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health

Diphu

 * Diphu Medical College and Hospital

Barpeta

 * Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital

Bhagalpur

 * Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital

Darbhanga

 * Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital
 * Mithila Minority Dental College and Hospital

Bettiah

 * Government Medical College and MJK Hospital

Gaya

 * Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital

Katihar

 * Katihar Medical College

Muzaffarpur

 * Sri Krishna Medical College

Patna

 * AIIMS Patna
 * Ford Hospital and Research Centre
 * Guru Gobind Singh Hospital, Patna Sahib
 * Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS)
 * Nalanda Medical College Hospital, Kankarbagh
 * Patna Medical College Hospital, Ashok Raj Patna

Sasaram

 * Narayan Medical College and Hospital

Chandigarh

 * Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Sector 12

Ahmedabad

 * Ahmedabad Civil Hospital
 * B.J. Medical College, Asarwa
 * GCRI, Ahmedabad
 * Shalby Hospital

Amreli

 * Shantabaa Medical College Hospital, Amreli

Baroda

 * Baroda Medical College Hospitals at M S University

Bhavnagar

 * Government Medical College Hospital Bhavnagar

Jamnagar

 * Irwin Group of Hospitals renamed as Guru Gobind Singh Hospital at M. P. Shah Medical College

Junagadh

 * GMERS Medical College and Hospital, Junagadh

Rajkot

 * All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rajkot & Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College Hospital, Rajkot

Surat

 * Smimer Hospital

Nadiad

 * Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital

Faridabad

 * Asian Institute of Medical Sciences
 * Fortis Escorts Hospital
 * Metro Hospital

Gurugram

 * Fortis Memorial Research Institute
 * Manipal Hospitals (formerly known as Columbia Asia)
 * Max Hospital
 * Medanta - The Medicity
 * Narayana Superspeciality Hospital
 * Paras Hospitals

Hisar

 * Ganga Ram Hospital

Shimla

 * Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla (Snowdown Hospital)
 * Deendayal Upadhyaya Hospital, Shimla (Ripon Hospital)

Others

 * Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College Kangra
 * Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College and Hospital, Mandi

Bengaluru

 * Apollo Hospitals
 * Bangalore Medical College
 * Bowring & Lady Curzon Hospitals
 * Bangalore Medical College
 * Columbia Asia, Hebbal
 * Columbia Asia, Yeshwanthpur
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre
 * Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Bangalore
 * Minto Eye Hospital, Bangalore Medical College
 * Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology
 * Narayana Hrudayalaya, Hosur Road
 * National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans), Bangalore
 * Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital
 * SDS Tuberculosis and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest diseases
 * Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Jayanagar
 * St. Johns Medical College
 * Vanivilas Women and Children Hospital, Bangalore Medical College
 * Victoria Hospital, Bangalore Medical College
 * Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre Whitefield, Bangalore
 * Basaveshwara Teaching and General Hospital, Gulbarga

Gulbarga

 * Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Sedam road

Mysore

 * All India Institute of Speech and Hearing [AIISH], Manasagangotri
 * Krishna Rajendra Hospital
 * Cheluvamba Hospital
 * Narayana Multispeciality Hospital
 * Columbia Asia, Belvadi
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre

Mangalore

 * A J Institute of Medical Science

Manipal

 * Kasturba Medical College

Alappuzha

 * Government T D Medical College, Alappuzha

Kozhikode (Calicut)

 * Government Medical College, Kozhikode
 * Aster MIMS
 * The Cradle Hospital Calicut
 * Chest Hospital
 * Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS)
 * Medical College Hospital

Kochi

 * Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences
 * Aster Medcity
 * General Hospital, Ernakulam
 * Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital
 * Lakeshore Hospital
 * Lisie Hospital
 * Little Flower Hospital
 * Medical Trust Hospital
 * Rajagiri Hospital
 * Renai medicity
 * Saraf Hospital
 * Sunrise Hospital

Kollam

 * Azeezia Medical College, Meeyannoor, Kollam
 * Bishop Benziger Hospital, Beach Road, Kollam
 * District Hospital, Kollam
 * Employee's State Insurance Hospital & Medical College
 * Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Kottiyam
 * Meditrina Hospital, Ayathil
 * N. S. Memorial Institute of Medical Sciences
 * Travancore Medical College Hospital

Kottayam

 * Medical College Hospital, Athirumpuzha
 * St. Thomas Hospital, Chethipuzha, Changanacherry

Palakkad

 * Seventh-day Adventist Hospital, Kanniampuram, Ottapalam

Thiruvananthapuram

 * Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology
 * Credence Hospital, Ulloor
 * Divya Prabha Eye Hospital
 * Medical College Hospital
 * Regional Cancer Centre
 * Mission Hospital, Pothencode
 * TB Hospital

Thrissur

 * Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Amala Nagar
 * Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute, Thrissur
 * Amala Ayurvedic Hospital and Research Centre, Amala Nagar

Bhopal

 * All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal
 * Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal and associated Hamidia Hospital, Kamla Nehru Hospital

Indore

 * Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital

Jabalpur

 * Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur

Gwalior

 * Cancer Hospital & Research Centre
 * Sahara Hospital

Aurangabad

 * Hedgewar Hospital
 * MGM Medical College and Hospital, Aurangabad

Mumbai

 * Asian Heart Institute, Bandra-Kurla Complex
 * Acworth Municipal Hospital for Leprosy, Wadala
 * Bhabha Hospital, Bandra
 * Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Mira Road
 * Bombay Hospital, Marine Lines
 * Breach Candy Hospital, Mahalaxmi
 * D Y Patil Hospital, Nerul
 * Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle
 * Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital, Fort
 * Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejebhoy Group of Hospitals, Sandhurst Road
 * Hinduja Healthcare Surgical, Khar, Mumbai
 * Hinduja Hospital, Mahim, Mumbai
 * Holy Family Hospital, Bandra
 * Hurkisondas Hospital, Girgaon
 * Jaslok Hospital, Pedar Road
 * Lilavati Hospital, Bandra
 * Lokmanya Tilak Hospital, Sion
 * Nanavati Hospital, Vile Parle
 * Prince Aly Khan Hospital, Byculla
 * Rajawadi Hospital, Ghatkopar
 * Saifee Hospital, Charni Road
 * KEM Hospital, Parel
 * Shushrusha Citizens' Co-operative Hospital, Shivaji Park, Mumbai
 * Shushrusha's Suman Ramesh Tulsiani Hospital, Vikhroli, Mumbai
 * Sunrise Hospital, Bhandup
 * Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel
 * Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Parel

Nashik

 * Shree Saibaba Heart Institute And Research Centre

Pune

 * Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital
 * Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital
 * Hardikar Hospital
 * Jehangir Hospital
 * Joshi Hospital
 * Ruby Hall Clinic
 * Sassoon Hospital
 * Sahyadri Hospital

Nagpur

 * Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur
 * All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur
 * Indira Gandhi Government Medical College, Nagpur
 * N.K.P. Salve Institute of Medical Sciences Popularly known as Lata Mangeshkar Hospital, Nagpur
 * National Cancer Instituite
 * KIMS-Kingsway Hospital
 * Alexis Multispecialty Hospital

Wardha

 * Kasturba Hospital, Sewagram

Yavatmal

 * Shri Vasantrao Naik Government Medical College

Manipur

 * Regional Institute of Medical Sciences
 * Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences

Meghalaya

 * North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences

Bhubaneswar

 * All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar
 * AMRI Hospital
 * Apollo Bhubaneswar
 * KIDS Hospital
 * Hi-Tech Medical College & Hospital
 * Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences
 * Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences
 * Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital

Balangir

 * Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital

Balasore

 * Fakir Mohan Medical College and Hospital

Baripada

 * Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital

Berhampur

 * MKCG Medical College and Hospital

Cuttack

 * Srirama Chandra Bhanja Medical College and Hospital

Keonjhar

 * Dharanidhar Medical College and Hospital

Koraput

 * Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College and Hospital

Puri

 * Shri Jagannath Medical College and Hospital

Rourkela

 * Hi-Tech Medical College & Hospital

Sambalpur

 * Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research

Sundargarh

 * Government Medical College and Hospital, Sundargarh

Rayagada

 * Christian Hospital, Bissam Cuttack

Pondicherry

 * Aravind Eye Hospital
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre
 * Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pillaiyarkuppam
 * Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalapet
 * Rajiv Gandhi Government Women And Children's Hospital
 * Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research
 * Aarupadai Veedu Medical College
 * Vinayaka Missions Medical College
 * Sri Venkateswara medical College, hospital & Research Centre

Chennai

 * Adyar Cancer Institute
 * Apollo Hospitals, Greams Road
 * Balaji Dental and Craniofacial Hospital
 * Billroth Hospitals
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre
 * Fortis Malar Hospital
 * Global Hospitals & Health City
 * Government General Hospital
 * Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine
 * Government Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
 * Government multi-super speciality hospital
 * Government Royapettah Hospital
 * Stanley Medical College and Hospital
 * Hindu Mission Hospital
 * Kilpauk Medical College Hospital
 * Madras Medical Mission
 * MIOT Hospital
 * National Institute of Siddha
 * Perambur railway hospital
 * Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Government Ophthalmic Hospital
 * Sankara Nethralaya
 * Sir Ivan Stedeford Hospital
 * Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute
 * Sundaram Medical Foundation (SMF Hospital), Anna Nagar
 * Tamil Nadu Government Dental College and Hospital
 * Voluntary Health Services

Coimbatore

 * Aravind Eye Hospital
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre
 * PSG Institute of Medical Sciences & Research
 * Sankara Eye Foundation
 * Sri Ramakrishna Hospital

Madurai

 * Apollo Hospitals
 * Aravind Eye Hospital
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre

Salem

 * Aravind Eye Hospital
 * Vasan Eye Care Hospital
 * Vinayaka Mission Hospital

Vellore

 * Sri Narayani Hospital & Research Centre Melvisharam
 * Christian Medical College & Hospital
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Katpadi
 * Government Vellore Medical College Hospital
 * Vasan Eye Care Hospital

Tiruchirappalli

 * Divisional Railway Hospital, Golden Rock

Tirunelveli

 * Adiparasakthi Hospital
 * Krishna Hospital
 * Shifa Hospital

Nagercoil

 * Catherine Booth Hospital
 * Little Flower Hospital
 * Dr. Jeyasekharan Hospital & Nursing Home

Hyderabad

 * Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences
 * Yashoda Hospitals, Malakpet, Secunderabad, Somajiguda
 * Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Domalguda & Jubilee Hills
 * Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital, Vidyanagar
 * Fernandez Hospital, Bogulkunta
 * L. V. Prasad Eye Institute
 * LifeSpring Hospitals
 * National Institute of Mentally Handicapped, Newbowenpally
 * Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Somajiguda
 * Osmania General Hospital, Afzal Gunj
 * Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital, Mehidipatnam

Warangal

 * Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital

Nizamabad

 * Government General Hospital, Nizamabad

Tripura

 * Tripura Medical College & Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Teaching Hospital
 * Agartala Government Medical College

Agra

 * District Hospital, Agra

Aligarh

 * Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh
 * Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College & Hospital, AMU, Aligarh
 * Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed Dental College & Hospital, AMU, Aligarh
 * Deen Dayal Hospital
 * City Hospital, Aligarh
 * KK Hospital
 * Maxfort Multi Speciality Hospital
 * Dr. Mohan Lal Memorial Gandhi Eye Hospital
 * District Malkhan Singh Hospital
 * Aligarh Hospital And Maternity
 * SIG Hospital
 * Shekhar Sarraf Memorial Hospital

Basti

 * OPEC Hospital, MVASMC Basti

Ghaziabad

 * Manipal Hospital
 * Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali

Kanpur

 * Hallet Hospital
 * Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College
 * Regency Hospital
 * J L Rohatgi Memorial Eye Hospital
 * Rama Medical College

Lucknow

 * King George's Medical University
 * Mayo Hospital
 * Sahara Hospital
 * SGPGI
 * Medanta Hospital

Moradabad

 * Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College & Research Centre

Noida

 * Fortis Hospital
 * Jaypee Hospital
 * Kailash Group of Hospitals
 * Max Multi Speciality Centre
 * Metro Hospitals & Heart Institute

Prayagraj

 * Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital

Varanasi

 * Sir Sunderlal Hospital (IMS BHU)

title: List of hospitals in India


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Serafino Dubois

Serafino Dubois (10 October 1817 – 15 January 1899) was an Italian chess Master and chess writer. Dubois was certainly among the strongest players in the world during the 1850s. He was known for his writings on the game, and for his promotion of chess in Italy.

Chess career
Serafino Dubois was born in Rome. His early career coincided with a time when the Italian rules of chess differed from those elsewhere in Europe, but he wasn't content with being recognized as the best player in Italy; he needed to prove himself on the European board as well.

During the early to middle part of the nineteenth century, chess tournaments were few and far between, and many of the top players were limited to playing matches against each other, usually for a substantial purse, which was either staked by themselves or by their patrons. From the 1840s to the 1860s, Dubois took part in many matches against the top players of Europe, and it was rare for him to lose, even when he gave odds of pawn and move to his opponents.

In 1846 he played a number of games in Rome against the strong English Master Marmaduke Wyvill, and it has been reported that Dubois won 55–26 when no odds were given by either side, but lost 39–30 when he gave odds of pawn and move to his opponent.

In 1855 he visited Paris and the famous Café de la Régence, a mecca for the leading French players and enthusiasts from abroad. He played no fewer than four matches, beating the strong French player Jules Arnous de Rivière by 25–7, Seguin by 5–1, Wincenty Budzyński by 13½–6½, but he did lose 4–1 to Lecrivain.

In 1856 he beat Kowsky 11½–1½, and played another match against de Rivière, but unfortunately the latter score has been lost. Two years later he played the celebrated Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev in the Cafe Antonini in Rome, and won a game in 25 moves giving odds of a pawn and ceding the first move. This game was later published in La Nuova Rivista degli Scacchi in 1880.

His best tournament performance came in the London tournament of 1862, where he placed 5th with 9 points, ahead of Wilhelm Steinitz, who later went on to become the first official world chess champion. Dubois won £10 in prize-money, now roughly equivalent to £700.

Loses match against Steinitz, wins three other matches
After the tournament ended, Steinitz challenged Dubois to a match. The future World Champion beat his Italian opponent by 5½–3½.

Just over 100 years after this match, world champion-to-be Bobby Fischer, who was very interested in 19th century chess, annotated in depth all nine games from it in his monthly column for Chess Life magazine in 1964 (April, July, August, November and December issues).

But Dubois did win several other matches that same year. He defeated Cornelius Bonetti by 11½–1½. He won two matches against Valentine Green: the first by 5–0 and the second 5½–½.

Dubois and Italian chess
Dubois moved to the Netherlands in April 1863, and reputedly stayed for about two years. However, he couldn't get used to the cooler climate, and returned to Rome where he concentrated on his writing and his promotion of the Italian rules of the game.

From the late 1850s to the early 1870s Serafino Dubois corresponded regularly with French and Russian masters about how to achieve unity in the rules of chess. In particular, he was an avid supporter of free castling, which was permitted under the Italian rules of the game but not elsewhere in Europe. Under free castling the King and Rook, after jumping over each other, could go to any square up to and including the other's starting point, provided neither piece attacked an enemy piece.

There were other significant differences in the Italian rules, too: taking a pawn "en passant" was forbidden, and pawns could only be promoted into pieces captured during the game. There was an added twist to the latter rule – if a pawn reached the eighth rank before any piece of its colour had been captured, it had to wait there 'suspended' until a piece was captured, at which time the promotion was possible.

Dubois discussed these issues in his writings of the time. In 1847 he became the editor of the first Italian chess column, L'Album in Rome, and by 1859 he was co-editor with Augusto Ferrante of the chess journal La Rivista degli Scacchi, which was also based in his home city. Between 1868 and 1873, he published a three-volume work on the differences in the rules between the Italian and French versions, in which he tried hard to defend the practice of free castling.

However, by the 1880s Italy toed the line and adopted the normal European laws of chess, although it wasn't until the end of the century that the new rules were widely accepted throughout the country.

Legacy
Dubois was Italy's best player during the 1850s and 1860s, and a very strong tactician, in keeping with the style of his times.

He was very influential within the world of Italian chess and, not surprisingly, chess politics played a big part in his later life. In addition, he wrote many articles on chess openings.

Dubois has several variations named in his honor: a) a line of the Vienna Game; b) the Dubois Variation of the Hamppe-Muzio Gambit (C25); c) the Dubois Variation of the Giuoco Pianissimo (C50); d) the Dubois-Reti Defence in the Scotch Gambit (C44).

However, he was not a keen fan of the French Defense, and commented: "This is the most monotonous and annoying play you can imagine – rarely it gives rise to combinations of some interest".

Death
Dubois died on 15 January 1899.

title: Serafino Dubois


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Interest rate derivative

In finance, an interest rate derivative (IRD) is a derivative whose payments are determined through calculation techniques where the underlying benchmark product is an interest rate, or set of different interest rates. There are a multitude of different interest rate indices that can be used in this definition.

IRDs are popular with all financial market participants given the need for almost any area of finance to either hedge or speculate on the movement of interest rates.

Modeling of interest rate derivatives is usually done on a time-dependent multi-dimensional lattice ("tree") or using specialized simulation models. Both are calibrated to the underlying risk drivers, usually domestic or foreign short rates and foreign exchange market rates, and incorporate delivery- and day count conventions. The Heath–Jarrow–Morton framework is often used instead of short rates.

Types
The most basic subclassification of interest rate derivatives (IRDs) is to define linear and non-linear. Further classification of the above is then made to define vanilla (or standard) IRDs and exotic IRDs; see exotic derivative.

Linear and non-linear
Linear IRDs are those whose net present values (PVs) are overwhelmingly (although not necessarily entirely) dictated by and undergo changes approximately proportional to the one-to-one movement of the underlying interest rate index. Examples of linear IRDs are; interest rate swaps (IRSs), forward rate agreements (FRAs), zero coupon swaps (ZCSs), cross-currency basis swaps (XCSs) and single currency basis swaps (SBSs).

Non-linear IRDs form the set of remaining products. Those whose PVs are commonly dictated by more than the one-to-one movement of the underlying interest rate index. Examples of non-linear IRDs are; swaptions, interest rate caps and floors and constant maturity swaps (CMSs). These products' PVs are reliant upon volatility so their pricing is often more complex as is the nature of their risk management.

Vanilla and exotic
The categorisation of linear and non-linear and vanilla and exotic is not universally acknowledged and a number of products might exist that can be arguably assigned to different categories. These terms may also overlap. "Vanilla", in "vanilla IRSs" and "vanilla swaptions", is often taken to mean the basic, most liquid and commonly traded variants of those products.

Exotic is usually used to define a feature that is an extension to an IRD type. For example, an in-arrears IRS is a genuine example of an exotic IRS, whereas an IRS whose structure was the same as vanilla but whose start and end dates might be unconventional, would not generally be classed as exotic. Typically this would be referred to as a bespoke IRS (or customised IRS). Bermudan swaptions are examples of swaption extensions that qualify as exotic variants.

Other products that are generally classed as exotics are power reverse dual currency note (PRDC or Turbo), target redemption note (TARN), CMS steepener, Snowball (finance), Inverse floater, Strips of Collateralized mortgage obligation, Ratchet caps and floors, and Cross currency swaptions.

Trivia
The interest rate derivatives market is the largest derivatives market in the world. The Bank for International Settlements estimates that the notional amount outstanding in June 2012 were US$494 trillion for OTC interest rate contracts, and US$342 trillion for OTC interest rate swaps. According to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, 80% of the world's top 500 companies as of April 2003 used interest rate derivatives to control their cashflows. This compares with 75% for foreign exchange options, 25% for commodity options and 10% for stock options.

title: Interest rate derivative


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Oldřich Duras

Oldřich Duras (also Důras; 30 October 1882, Pchery, Bohemia, then Austria-Hungary – 5 January 1957, Prague, then Czechoslovakia) was a leading Czech chess master of the early 20th century. FIDE awarded him the title of International Grandmaster in 1950, when the title was first introduced, in recognition of his achievements in the early twentieth century. While still a young man and playing at a near-peak level, Duras suddenly retired from active play after 1914.

Among his noted tournament wins (all shared) are Bremen (1905), Prague (1908), Vienna (1908) and Breslau (1912). He had plus scores against Richard Teichmann (+6-2=6), David Janowski (+3-1=0), Carl Schlechter (+2-1=11) and Aron Nimzowitsch (+3-2=3), and level scores with Siegbert Tarrasch and Géza Maróczy. He lost the one game he played with Emanuel Lasker, had a draw and a loss against José Raúl Capablanca, and heavy minus scores against Akiba Rubinstein, Ossip Bernstein and Milan Vidmar and was one game behind with Frank Marshall (+7-8=5).

Duras was also a noted chess composer.

The Duras Gambit is named after him.

title: Oldřich Duras