Chennai: Surprises and a sudden turn of events are not new to the Actuarial Society of India (ASI). One such event was the unanticipated resignation of Dr R Kannan as ASI''s president and the elevation of G N Agarwal, vice president, in his place. Consequently, ASI''s governing council elected honorary secretary K S Gopalakrishan as the vice president and Heerak Basu an executive committee member as honorary secretary. G L N Sarma continues as the honorary joint secretary and treasurer.

It may be recalled, a stiff war has been on between Dr Kannan and his predecessor Liyaquat Khan. (See: The big fight: Khan v/s Kannan). Dr Kannan, who is on tour to Mexico, could not be reached for comments.

Says Agarwal on his elevation, "I am really happy." What he does not say is that the workload on him goes up immensely as he is also the executive director (Actuarial) and appointed actuary of one of the world''s largest life insurers, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

The other interesting development is Khan''s decision to contest the executive committee and governing council elections, due shortly. Only last November he quit ASI''s governing council. (See: Liyaquat Khan out of ASI''s governing council) and the executive committee co-opted K P Narashiman as the member.

As per ASI''s rules, one third of the governing council members who have served the longest since their election have to retire by rotation at every annual general meeting, while the co-opted members retire at the next annual body meeting.

As a result, five of the 12 sitting members — K.S. Gopalakrishnan, G L N Sarma, S. Madhusudhanan, N M Govardhan and Narasimhan — have to retire this year. While all of them are eligible for reelection two actuaries, Madhusudhanan and Govardhan, have decided not to contest due to personal reasons, sources say. In addition three more actuaries have decided to contest. They are A K Singh, Pournima Gupte and K P Sarma.

Khan declined to comment on his latest move.