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Maestro of the Wild
Mumbai: The conventional measures of legacy usually have material and career success centred firmly in their sights. Aditya ‘Dicky’ Singh, former bureaucrat turned legendary wildlife photographer, tiger expert, author and conservationist had that in spades. The tributes that poured in from the wildlife and photography communities across the world at his untimely passing at the age of 57 were ample proof of this.
Yet, a truer measure of legacy is the people who value memories from shared times of empty pockets and unknown futures. On 14 January, Dicky’s classmates, the Batch of ’84 from Modern School, Barakhamba Road, gathered to pay tribute to their batchmate by contributing to the release of a special edition of Wildlife Today magazine at the National Sports Club of India, on his visionary work and activism in shaping future thinking on conservation and wildlife.
Entitled Wildlife Maestro: Dicky’s Legacy, the special edition was released by his mother Mrs Aruna Singh amongst the legion of friends and family who had gathered for an emotional homage. Several classmates shared personal anecdotes about Dicky’s larger-than-life personality, his sharp humour and his generosity. His father Brigadier N.B. Singh spoke with feeling about how Dicky took his ‘permission’ to give up the civil services and plunge into an unknown future in Ranthambore National Park, driven only by his passion for the wild. No one could predict it would be his home for the rest of his life.
The special edition edited by Sudhir Kumar, captures Dicky’s visionary tale. His name was synonymous with Ranthambore, the tiger land that inspired him to breezily chuck a weighty bureaucratic career overnight to plunge into a passionate affair with wildlife that took him from observer to guide to host to builder and finally, fittingly; preserver and defender of the land he so cherished. It outlines the extraordinary initiative he and his lifelong companion in arms, wife Poonam, took up in buying land around their Ranthambore home and rewilding it, his outspokenness on and dedication to the preservation of the wild, his anti-poaching initiatives and his sheer passion for nature.
It offers glimpses of his photography not just as an astonishingly close-up photographic record of his beloved tiger land but one that visually captured the high intellectual debate of development vs natural resources and the balance between human and animal, winning him both the coveted Carl Zeiss Award and the Sanctuary Wild Life Photographer along the way.
Dicky Singh is survived by his wife Poonam, daughter Nyra and the beautiful forest full of wild beings that will live on long after him. His absence leaves a massive void in the conservation and wildlife community that needs every hero it can get.
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PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
