In the 21st episode, I speak to Sandeep Mertia, PhD Candidate, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University on his new edited volume Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India published by the Institute of Network Cultures (2021). The edited volume brings together chapters from fifteen interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners who provide cutting analyses on India’s current computational culture encapsulated by big data and its historical and emergent dynamics on India’s politics and society. The volume emerged out of discussions and workshops at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) Sarai Programme. The volume offers us critical ways of considering and analyzing India’s big data moment and how it manifests relationally through different political and cultural nodes in India’s socio-political context. The conversation begins by asking Mertia about the origins of the volume before unpacking how data became so powerful in India. Next, we cover how data derives value from its relational nature or the lineages, affinities, networks and layers that add to data’s value in the Indian context. Mertia then historicizes data in India going back to the 1950s to trace how distinct domestic computing histories led to the current one. The conversation then moves to understand the role data practitioners play and whether it makes sense to view technological progress through their stand alone perch or collaboratively. We end with some thoughts on specific chapters including the last few that use ethnographic accounts to map the everyday aspects of data in India today and what Mertia thinks could be India’s data future.