Research
Akshat is interested in the economics of information and governance: how institutions encode knowledge, how policy alters incentive structures, and where rigorous mathematical tools can illuminate questions that prose alone cannot. Current work spans AI policy, tail risk in financial markets, education policy, and algebraic number theory.
Eq. 1 · the value of information, as the envelope of expected utility over actions
Examining how financial misinformation spreads across Indian social media. The corpus is multilingual and code-mixed, so detection runs on MuRIL and XLM-RoBERTa rather than the usual English-only models. Paired with validated psychological instruments, the BFI-2-XS personality inventory and the Fear of Missing Out scale, to identify which individual traits predict sharing behaviour rather than only which posts are false.
Research conducted under Professor Surbhi Goel (University of Pennsylvania) on AI policy and existential risk, examining the dual nature of transformative technology through an economic and governance lens. Presented at the NYC STEM Research Conference; I was the only high school student in the room.
@article{bhaskar2025twofaces,
author = {Bhaskar, Akshat},
title = {The Two Faces of Progress: A Look at the
Socio-Economic Challenges and Opportunities
Presented by Artificial Intelligence},
journal = {IJRASET},
volume = {13},
number = {7},
year = {2025}
}
Analysis of global economic structures, monetary policy transmission, regulatory architecture, and capital market dynamics, with proposed improvements to international financial governance. I was the only high school student published in the journal.
Research in financial economics and systemic risk into the propagation of extreme, low-probability, high-impact shocks across global markets, modelling systemic contagion and cross-market spillover through historical crises and tail-risk frameworks. Culminated in a first-author research paper.
An independent study of the effect of India's National Education Policy 2020 on graduate employability, skill development, and the structural transition of the labour market, with a focus on vocational and higher education pathways. Set aside rather than carried to a conclusion.
Original research in algebraic number theory under Professor Shanta Laishram (Head of the Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit (Stat-Math Unit) at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Delhi).
Selected into the NYAS Junior Academy in August 2025. Completed the Fall 2025 Challenge on Energy Infrastructure in collaboration with a global cohort of secondary students, developing science-backed policy and engineering solutions. Worked under Dr. Nandhini Sivakumar, Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Motor Neuron Center, Columbia University, on the energy infrastructure project.
Completed university-level pure mathematics, Number Theory, Group Theory, Linear Algebra, and Geometry, alongside Great Ideas Seminars with Nobel laureates. One of fewer than 30 students admitted nationwide.