What is the newsletter about?
India’s genome contains multitudes. This thought letter attempts to decipher it, base by base, by analyzing data using first principles. Every fortnight, I choose a topic I am interested in, look up the data and try to put it in context - for India.
Why am I writing this?
Newspapers and PrimeTime TV shows are full of experts explaining what is happening in India. However, a critical missing component of these opinions is the underlying statistics. A narrative coming from an expert (or a non-expert but being repeated enough times) often masquerades as “the fact” despite being pure fiction. Blanket statements are problematic and harmful. I am intrigued by India’s statistical architecture. Despite the popular narrative that there is too little data on any topic (health or otherwise) in India, I feel there is a wealth of data (including bad-quality data) as long as we look in the right places. But data and numbers can often be boring, unintelligible, and hard to communicate without context. I aim to critically engage with this data through a contextual lens to help interpret it without any ideological spin.
Why should you consider subscribing?
All posts on this substack will always remain free to view. However, you won’t have to worry about missing anything if you subscribe. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
Who am I?
I am an Assistant Professor at the Koita Centre for Digital Health at IIT Bombay where my lab develops statistical and computational methods to understand how genes are (mis-)regulated in diseases.
Before starting my group at IIT Bombay, I was a postdoc at the New York Genome Center, where I developed statistical methods for single-cell transcriptomics.
I did my PhD at the University of Southern California (USC), where my work revolved around developing new computational methods to decipher the process of protein synthesis. I trained in Statistics and Computer Science while at USC. Before that, I studied Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay.
Outside of work, I enjoy music, food, and books. You can find me on X/Twitter @saketkc and my website.
