Balaka grew up in Durgapur, India. She received her bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Presidency College, Calcutta University in 2012. She completed her master's degree and PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. During her PhD, she studied different aspects of protein folding and aggreagation using coarse-grained models under the supervision of Prof. Govardhan Reddy. At present she is a postdoctoral research scholar at the University of Texas at Austin with Prof. Thirumalai. Her current research focuses on understanding sequence specificity and role of ions on DNA mechanics.