India, Jan. 16 -- How strange-and alarming-to think that an invisible employer is vanishing beneath our feet. Groundwater, long treat-ed as a private convenience, has quietly underpinned millions of days of casual farm work across India. As watertables fall, that "employer" is showing up less at the village gate: fewer transplanting seasons, shorter harvests and less de-mand for daily wage labour. The result is not only ecological stress but a mounting labour-market shock for the most precarious rural workers. Start with the scale. The Central Ground Water Board's (CGWB's) "Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India 2024" assessment reports India's annual groundwater recharge at roughly 448.5 billion cubic metres (BCM), with an annual ex-tra...