According to Mr.Kannan, IIT(Indian Institute of Technology, Madras) was very influential in his life. He pursued a degree of B.Tech(Mechanical Engineering) there.  Kannan became an engineer by accident. Most of his  classmates chose to become engineers and he decided to do the same. During his IIT days he lived in the hostel. There, he had the opportunity to interact with other students and thereby learnt a lot. This provided a foundation for his career.