Prashant Jhawar: Caught in Usha Martin's power struggle

Prashant got ousted as non-executive chairman of Usha Martin by the board earlier this week

Once a master deal maker, Prashant Jhawar got ousted as the non-executive chairman of Usha Martin by the board earlier this week on a written requisition by the State Bank of India (SBI) nominee director, Venkatachalam Ramkrishna Iyer, in what would go down as the rarest of rare cases in India Inc. He was replaced by former Securities & Exchange Board of India chairman G N Bajpai.

Jhawar’s ouster came after considerable friction with the lenders. The lenders, led by SBI, desired the promoters to pledge 13 per cent of their stake as security, since Usha Martin was in the