Dr. K P Krishnan is an IAS and has served for 37 years in various positions in the Government of Karnataka, the Government of India, and the World Bank. Besides managing field duties such as District Collector Mangalore, he served in Government of Karnataka departments dealing with agriculture, co-operatives and marketing, urban development and infrastructure, commercial taxes, and finance.
He has been a strong researcher in academics in parallel to his government career. Besides being a visiting faculty at IIM Bangalore, ISB, and Ashoka University, he held the prestigious Bok Visiting Professorship of Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He also served as the IEPF Chair Professor of Economics at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NAER) in New Delhi. He is an Honorary Research Professor at CPR.
In the Government of India, he has served in key roles as Secretary of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Additional Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Additional Secretary, of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Secretary, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, and Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. In these positions, he served on the boards of corporations, banks as well as boards of statutory regulatory authorities.
At present, he is an independent Director on the Boards of Shriram Capital Limited, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited, Tata Consumer Product Limited, and Directors on the boards of a few not-for-profit institutions working in the areas of education and public health.
He has written several reports and published many academic papers. In 2017, he was conferred with the Distinguished Alumni Award of IIM Bangalore. From August 2020 to December 2021, he served as the IEPF Chair Professor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). He regularly writes a monthly column (Artikam Chintanam-thoughts on the economy) in the Business Standard focusing on the Indian economy and financial sector issues.
