Bala is the Global Coordinator for the Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD), Advisor – India Relations at the Leibniz University Hannover and Post-doctoral fellow, Institute for Botany the Leibniz University Hannover, Germany.
 
Bala has BSc in Zoology, an MSc in Marine Biology and Oceanography and a PhD in Natural Sciences. Bala is currently conducting research on the effects of the 2004 tsunami on agricultural lands.