Economic, social and political impact of microfinance on rural development & poverty alleviation of Uttar Pradesh with special reference to Varanasi District Dr. Srivastava Sunita1, Deo Arvind2 1Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (India). e-mail: srivastavadrsunita@gmail.com 2Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (India) E-Mail: arvind_deo2001@yahoo.com, deo.arvind701@gmail.com Online published on 10 September, 2019. Abstract Microfinance enables the rural people and excluded section of the society who does not have an access to formal banking to do small business, create assets, increase their income, and avoid their vulnerability to economic crisis. Microfinance is major rural development tool that provides microfinance services such as micro credit or very small loans and savings etc to support the people in expanding or establishing their businesses. Government and Microfinance Institutions also provide assistance to form small help groups (SHGs), skill development & training for employment generation. The objective of this research is to study the economic, social & political impact of microfinance on rural development & poverty alleviation in Varanasi district of U.P., India. The entire analysis was conducted, interpreted on the basis of utilisation of the loan (business purpose or personal purpose). First objective of the research was to identify the most important economic, social & political factors that have impact on the role microfinance in rural development & poverty alleviation. Second objective was to find out the significant difference between the two groups (Business purpose & Personal purpose) for the Economic, Social & Political factors (variables) that have impact on rural development & poverty alleviation. Frequency analysis, Factor analysis & ANOVA were the statistical tool, used for data analysis. It was finally concluded that respondents who utilised loan for business purpose were far more agreed that microfinance has socio-economic impact and plays a vital role in rural development & poverty alleviation, than the respondents who utilised loan for personal purpose. Top Keywords Loan utilisation, Microfinance, Microfinance Institutions, Poverty Alleviation, Rural Development. Top |