Why it is in the news
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its State of Global Water Resources 2025 on 17 September 2026. The edition places India among the regions in persistent groundwater deficit through 2022–2025, records below-normal terrestrial water storage over northern India and the Ganges–Indus headwaters, and reports 2025 as one of the driest years for global river discharge in more than three decades.
The exam angle
Issue: India's groundwater is legally private, constitutionally a State subject and economically almost free to pump, yet its depletion is a national externality. Can a common-pool resource be governed through that combination of incentives and jurisdiction?