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The purpose of this research study is to explore and analyze the factors that will favour or constrain the introduction of an Islamic Retail bank in a Muslim-minority country such as Mauritius. This research attempts to fill the gap in the empirical literature on the setting up of an Islamic Retail bank in a Muslim-minority country. It recognizes upfront that Islamic banking offers an alternative banking system that is attractive to both Muslims and non-Muslims.

The research adopts a mixed approach to address the prospects and challenges of establishing an Islamic Retail bank in Mauritius.

The research finds that there are various prospects for an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius for Muslims and non-Muslims, including enabling legal, fiscal and regulatory framework, the financing of small- and medium-sized enterprises and the issuance of ṣukūk (Islamic investment certificates). The research also finds that the development of an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius face various challenges. Some of these challenges are lack of Sharīʿah-compliant liquidity instruments and inter-bank deposits, lack of knowledge and understanding of Sharīʿah-compliant products and the enforcement of Islamic contracts in court.

This in-depth study appears to be comprehensive and will help in developing a solid foundation for establishing an Islamic retail bank in Mauritius.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main components of the regulatory framework for Islamic banking in Mauritius. This small island state of the Indian Ocean aspires to host Islamic banking products while diversifying the range of financial services offered within its hybrid jurisdiction despite having a minority Muslim population. The study also aims at drawing some comparisons with the well-established regulatory framework that applies to conventional banking.

In this qualitative analysis of the regulatory framework of Islamic banking in Mauritius, the doctrinal approach is adopted. This method relies principally on a scrutiny of the provisions of the law and delves into the primary and secondary sources of law guiding Islamic banking practices in the Mauritian jurisdiction.

The research study concludes that, with the view of encouraging investors into Islamic banking, policymakers took some regulatory initiatives but these remained timid. These initiatives relied too often on borrowing from the regulatory framework in place for conventional banking practices instead of regulating the area within its own precepts. Prospects for expanding Islamic banking exist but will require more audacious regulatory steps so as to secure the environment within which Islamic banking is to flourish. In the meantime, the industry is in a status quo position with no further legal action currently being envisaged to re-launch this area.

This research study is among the first generated specifically on the regulatory framework of Islamic banking in a small financial centre that operates mostly offshore financial activities. Previous research work either focused on the empirical analysis or on reviewing the challenges and the prospects but no study has provided an in-depth analysis of the regulatory provisions circumscribing Islamic banking. This lacuna is being filled up by this research paper which highlights the regulatory needs of Islamic banking and comments on the inclusion of and the need for specific rules related to Islamic finance instead of relying on the overlap with conventional banking laws.

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is already upon us. The rapid development of AI tools is facilitating sustainable development and its corollary social good. For AI dedicated to social good to be impactful, it has to be human-centred, striving to achieve inclusiveness, sustainable livelihoods and community well-being. In short, it offers major opportunities to holistically enhance peoples' lives in diverse areas: education, health care, food security, disaster reduction, smart cities, etc. However, ethical, unbiased and ‘secure-by-design’ algorithms that power AI are crucial to building trust in this technology. Civil society's engagement can hopefully drive the features and values that should be embedded in AI.

This chapter focuses on the societal benefits that AI can deliver. Our initiatives and decisions of today will fashion the ‘Social Good’ AI applications of tomorrow. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being addressed are 2–4 and 10–11.

This study sheds light on the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on self-employed women in Mauritius and delves into their coping strategies amid unprecedented circumstances.

The study employs a comprehensive methodology encompassing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative analysis is conducted via interviews with self-employed women in Mauritius, capturing their experience with COVID-19. Quantitative analysis uses survey data from 732 firms to investigate factors affecting online sales, a major survival strategy adopted by businesses.

The study finds a notable trend wherein many interviewed women have transitioned their businesses online – a pivot that stands out as a common response within the sample. The quantitative analysis indicates the significance of a strong online presence, particularly on social media and web-based platforms designed for the sale of goods and services. These factors correlate with higher online sales, potentially enhancing resilience during pandemic-induced lockdown periods.

This study stands out for its originality, representing the first study investigating how women entrepreneurs in Mauritius have navigated the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis.

This paper aims to examine the employment effect of the minimum wage in Mauritius, a country that has recently introduced an economy-wide national minimum wage. As women have low labor force participation rate and higher unemployment rate compared to men, this study sheds light on the impact of the national minimum wage on male and female employment.

A conceptual framework based on the labor–leisure model of Blundell et al. (2007) incorporating the minimum wage as an important variable influencing the employment decision of the individual serves as the methodological backdrop of this paper. It applies the difference-in-difference estimation technique and uses micro data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Survey for the period 2017–2019.

The results show that minimum wage has a significant negative impact on overall employment. With the imposition of the national minimum wage, the probability that an individual, currently earning less than the minimum wage, remains employed is 0.525 lower than that of a worker earning above the minimum wage level. Moreover, using sex-disaggregated data, the analysis demonstrates the negative employment effects of the minimum wage adversely impact women more than men.

This is a first attempt to estimate the effect of the newly introduced national minimum wage on employment in Mauritius. While the effects of a minimum wage vary across different segments of the economy, this study adopts a gender perspective by comparing the impact of the minimum wage on male and female employment.

This study aims to shed light on the phenomenon of food waste generation by the food and beverage sector of hotels of Mauritius as well as examine the current status of food waste management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how university academics from three different cultural and linguistic backgrounds perceived their own cultural context and how it influences on online learning.

The views of 30 faculty members from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Mauritius who engaged in a six-week professional development online course were gathered through a self-reflection questionnaire, posts on an asynchronous discussion forum and personal self-reflections in journal entries. Content analysis of three asynchronous discussion forums indicated the emergence of categories and themes related to traditional culture and the impact of culture on online learning that were triangulated with questionnaire data and journal entries.

Cultural perceptions of Sri Lankans and Pakistanis showed similar patterns in their recognition that their cultures exhibit characteristics of high power distance, collectivism and feminine values, while there were no definite dimensional perspectives from the Mauritians. The inability to define their own cultural context using bi-polar dimensions may reflect the sociocultural context of Mauritius. While these frameworks may explain more traditional cultures like those in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, they are unlikely to be useful to define cultural characteristics when the society is diverse, multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual like Mauritius.

This study was based on a small sample of participants from three ethnic origins and cannot be generalized. It has generated questions for further research.

The findings have implications for accounting for culture in designing and delivering online courses.

This study will benefit instructional designers/curriculum designers/teachers to design culturally sensitive and culturally adaptive online courses.