Medical degree offered by the Manipal University, India, is no longer recognized by the Medical Council of India, as announced last week.

Inadequate facilities and non-compliance to regulations are cited as the reasons of the de-recognition.

The decision means that students graduated in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) may not be granted immediate qualification to practice medicine in Malaysia. However, the Health Ministry is yet to issue its ultimate decision on the status. A team from the ministry is being sent for observation and evaluation.

The Medical Council of India, or MCI, is a regulatory constitutional body set up to establish a quality medical framework for tertiary institutions in the country. The body grants recognition to colleges and universities in India, as well as in overseas.

The Manipal University is popular among the Malaysian students, with more than 50 students enrolled for MBBS and dentistry course. It also has a sister campus based in Melaka.

Manipal enrolls more than 100,000 students at one time, with students coming from over 50 countries worldwide. Some of the popular courses offered by the university are dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, biotechnology, engineering, business, management and health sciences.

While Starbucks has just embarked on a job cutting spree for its America operation, McDonald’s decided to do the opposite in the United Kingdom.

If 12,000 Starbucks employees in US will lose jobs until the end of the year, 4,000 new jobs will be created in UK as part of the McDonald’s expansion plan. And while Starbucks will be closing 600 outlets in the next 6 months, the latter will be adding more shops.

As a start, 10 new outlets are being launched across the country, creating more than 500 jobs instantly.

This will also make way for longer operating hours, addition of drive through operation, and introduction of additional facilities, including Wi-Fi installations.

The recruitment drive will see the number of McDonald’s staff in the country, which stands at a strong 67,000 countrywide at the moment, grows by some 6 percent. It will be the company’s largest recruitment exercise in a decade.

McDonald’s is presently the world’s largest fast food franchise chain, with its outlets found in more than 100 countries worldwide, serving close to 50 million customers everyday. It’s latest move is also part of the organization’s attempt to show that their operation is recession proof, and can grow in bad economy.

To some, Malaysia, just like many other countries out there, is a land of opportunity. To others, it’s just a bad economy.

The former would brainstorm ideas on what business to start. The latter, on the other hand, choose to lament how bad the country is and keep telling others that all businesses are destined for eventual failure.

Whatever you want to feel, the choice is yours.

If you belong to the first, just in case you are still contemplating what you can do to kick off your entrepreneurial journey, perhaps the following business ideas might get the creative juice flowing out of your brain. Rather than mentioning specific business, the ideas are presented by field or industry instead. Look further and look harder, you may find a sparkling diamond.

1. Food

Yes, food. Whether the economy is good or bad, people eat. And they will continue to eat for as long as they need to live. The recipe for success in the F&B business are; one – tasty food; two – start up customer base and three – good service. Regardless how small your initial customer base, serve your good food well and you’re bound for stardom. The same exact recipe brought the likes of Kluang Station all the way to Kuching, Rotiboy from Bukit Mertajam to KLCC, and The Chicken Rice Shop to Europe.

2. Wedding

Having the perfect wedding, with the perfect couple is everyone’s dream. After all, it’s pretty much safe to say that those who got married intended to do only once, no matter how things turn out to be. While there are a number of companies out there which can offer a one stop wedding package solution, many of them started by offering smaller services such as dais arrangement & decoration (pelamin), photography, videography, customized gifts and so on. Choose one and start giving your best shot, there will be more business to come.

3. Agriculture

In a country rich with natural resources, it will be a shame if no advantage is taken. For the past decade, the government has allocated billions of fund for those who aspire to embark on a business in agriculture but are financially challenged to do so. If that’s not enough, there are many courses around that will train entrepreneurs to make a kick start. There are many stories of young graduates who found it difficult to find job but make their first thousands by breeding catfish and goats, or growing chillies and corns.

4. E-Commerce/Internet

While the internet and e-commerce is making a big wave in the global front, Malaysia is still relatively considered an untapped market. Only a handful of players are making it big here, such as Air Asia, eBay, MPH, Lelong and Mobile88. The rest of them are either surviving or dying. There are also a number of local internet marketers in Malaysia today who are emerging with their own created digital and physical products, so certainly, the future looks good.

5. Service

If the manufacturing sector has been dominating the country’s economy for the past decade, now it’s the service turn. The last quarter of 2007 economic report saw the service sector overtaking manufacturing as the number one industry in Malaysia. Some of the service business, such as consulting, training, IT development, translation and writing does not require huge capital investment, and this will prove to be a winning point.

1.5 million job vacancies will be created once the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) infrastructure is running at full capacity.

The figure of 1.5 million is much higher compared to job vacancies to be created in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), which stands at half a million. With such a staggering figure, it may take up to twenty years before it can materialize.

70,000 people will be needed to take up managerial and professional role, 140,000 for technical (engineers and technicians), and the rest will be made up of semi skilled labor and unskilled labor.

Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) is a premier infrastructure project aimed to elevate the economy and the standard of life of people in Sarawak, many of whom neglected for long. The state’s milestone is to attain the status of a developed state by the year 2020.

Under the project, initiative will be focused on the generation of renewable energy through natural resources such as hydropower, coal and natural gas. The corridor will span across the Sarawak’s central region, stretching over 300km in distance, and connecting people in remote cities such as Sibu, Sarikei, Bintulu, Mukah and Kapit.

SCORE is one of the five corridor projects under the Malaysia Ninth Plan (RMK9), with the other four being the NCER (North Corridor Economic Region), ECER (East Coast Economic Region), SDC (Sabah Development Corridor), and Iskandar Malaysia.