Yaaminey is an art historian and cultural heritage specialist. She pursued her Bachelor’s degree at Mount Holyoke College, USA as a South Asian Studies major, focussing on comparative religions, languages, and cultures. She went on to earn several advanced degrees: an MSc. in Social Policy from the London School of Economics, and her MA, MPhil, and PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is a leading scholar and activist in ecofriendly and locally based conservational initiatives at major historical and heritage sites in India. Yaaminey’s work with the culture sector in UNESCO introduced her to the issues besetting development agencies and the importance of people’s concerns in development initiatives. She subsequently worked with various non-governmental organisations in the field of culture and development. She strongly feels that culture is a fundamental issue that underpins development initiatives. Yaaminey works on pilgrimage sites in Puri and Amritsar to illustrate the power inherent in culture as a medium to drive development initiatives. She is on the Expert Committee of the Government of Punjab for Development of Cultural Tourism, and is also a founder member of Satark Nagrik Sangathan, an organisation working on using the Right to Information (RTI) for community empowerment in New Delhi.