Dr. R. Kannan joined as Member (Actuary) with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority on December 18^th, 2006. Earlier, he was Principal Advisor in the Reserve Bank of India and also the Head of the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy. During April 2001- March 2006, he worked as the Appointed Actuary of the SBI Life Insurance Company. During 1994-98, he served as Advisor in the office of India’s Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, Washington; and during 1992-94, he was Advisor to Governor, Bank of Mauritius, Mauritius.  

Dr. Kannan is a double post-graduate - M.Sc. in Econometrics from Madurai University and M.A. in Economics from the same university. He did his Ph.D. from Bombay University and during 1987-88; he worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the University of Pennsylvania, USA under the noble laureate Prof. Lawrence Klein. 

Dr. Kannan has written about 40 research papers and served in 10 working groups related to various aspects of money, finance, insurance and pension. Recently, he was the Chairman of the Experts Committee constituted by the Government of India to draw the road map for moving towards Exempt-Exempt-Tax method of taxation of saving instruments in India. 

He is elected as Vice Chair of the “Solvency Subcommittee” of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). He is also a member of “Contract Subcommittee” and “Pension Subcommittee of IAIS. He is also a member of “Financial Risks Committee” of the International Actuarial Association. Recently he was inducted as a Member of “Nomination Committee of International Actuarial Association”. He was the Chairman of the working group constituted by the Actuarial Society of India to draw the road map for moving towards Risk Based Capital for insurance industry in India. He was the President, Actuarial Society of India (now known as Institute of Actuaries of India) during 2004- 06. He was also a Chairman of the working group to draw the roadmap for moving towards International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for insurance companies in India.