April 7, 2015. The first semi-final round of WorldSkills Ural Federal District took place at Culture Palace of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group). According to the Group’s press service, the solemn opening ceremony was attended by Russia’s official delegate to WorldSkills International, Head of Blue Collar Training & Vocational Education Department at Russian Education & Science Ministry Natalya Zolotareva, Director-General of WorldSkills Russia Robert Urazov, Deputy Head of Education Projects at the Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian

April 7, 2015. Ural Airlines launched a new mobile app for checking in online. The air carrier’s customers can now check in for their flight using an iOS mobile phone or a tablet. Their boarding card will be sent to their email address and will also be available within UralAirlines app, the airline’s press service reports. Ural Airlines introduced their mobile app in May 2014. So far, users have been offered such services as the flight schedule, booking and buying a ticket online, online interactive announcement board, passenger help, and others. A new version of the app is to be made

April 7, 2015. The net loss of Uralmashzavod (UZTM) came to 2,317,528,000 RUR in 2014, the company’s annual accounting report states. The plant’s revenues dropped by 37% last year and amounted to 4,541,944,000 RUR against 7,179,381,000 RUR in 2013. Proceeds from sales of machines and equipment on the home market decreased from 5,921,119,000 RUR down to 3,193,543,000 RUR. At the same time, proceeds from sales on India’s market rose from 444.071m RUR to 455.702m RUR. Figures also looked better on the CIS sales and the markets of the countries of the far abroad: 892.699m RUR in 2014 against

April 7, 2015. Ural Federal University intends to enroll 20% fewer full-time students by 2020. Stricter eligibility and admission requirements will be introduced to reduce the number of students from 24,000 to 20,000 people, Rector Viktor Koksharov told the Expert Ural magazine. ‘This is one the things necessary to make our college more competitive. Applicants will have to face stricter requirements during the next enrollment campaign; for one, their Russian state exam scores will have to be higher than those recommended by Rosobrnadzor, so some of the applicants won’t get admitted because of

April 7, 2015. Consumer prices rose by 1% in Sverdlovsk Region this March; this is an 8.1% increase on the start of the year, Sverdlovskstat reports. Food prices (excluding strong drinks) went up by 2.3% (and by 12.4% compared with the beginning of the year), the price of strong drinks increased by 1.9% (by 4.9% compared with the start of the year), and those of non-food items rose by 1.5% (by 7.3% compared with the start of the year).