GoI has directed Meta to disable ads and content on Instagram that reportedly facilitate child sexual abuse material. This was after a BBC report found the social networking service running paid ads of that nature in India. Meta responded by stating that it uses 'advanced AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals', adding that it was 'categorically inaccurate' to suggest it knowingly targeted such ads to users, and denied prioritising revenue over safety.Meanwhile, in an FT article earlier this month, Sam Altman called for governments - not companies - to set rules for AI. The next day, OpenAI was reported to have discussions on giving the US government 5% stake in the company. Whenever incumbents begin speaking passionately about 'global standards', 'responsible governance' and 'shared safety', history suggests they have usually reached the stage where they own most of the assets and would like everyone else to stop catching up. It was nuclear clubs earlier, followed by semiconductor alliances. Now, it's AI safety.But here's the thing: this doesn't make them villains. It makes them remarkably efficient capitalists.Altman's proposal for a US-led global AI safety framework has understandably attracted criticism. Elaborate regulations end up protecting those large enough to afford compliance, while raising barriers for everyone else. A safety regime could unintentionally become the world's most sophisticated competitive moat, cementing US AI leadership under the comforting language of 'protecting humanity'.But instead of asking whether the rules are fair, India should ask: how do we make money from the rules? No country has benefited more from global compliance than India. When the West invented accounting standards, India produced accountants. When cybersecurity became fashionable, India produced security engineers. When GDPR terrified European companies, Indian IT firms happily sold privacy consulting.Whenever the developed world creates bureaucracy, India somehow finds a way to invoice it. AI safety could become the biggest consulting opportunity since Y2K. Imagine millions of AI models requiring audits, certifications, red-team testing, governance reviews, documentation, explainability assessments and continuous monitoring. Someone has to do all that work. Spoiler alert: it's unlikely to be Silicon Valley tech bros. It will be armies of engineers, auditors, lawyers, ethicists, risk specialists and governance professionals.India already has them. Or knows exactly how to train them. While Silicon Valley debates existential risk, Bengaluru could become the world's back office for AI trust. That may sound uninspiring compared to dreams of building the next frontier model, but it's how India built a $250 bn IT services industry.Every tech revolution creates two kinds of winners: those who invent the machines, and those who industrialise everything around them. The US invented commercial aviation. Singapore built one of the world's greatest aviation hubs. The Dutch did not invent global finance. They simply became very good at facilitating it. Similarly, India need not win every frontier-model race to become indispensable in the AI economy.In fact, the current geopolitical tensions may make India's position even stronger. Neither Washington nor Beijing fully trusts the other. European governments trust neither completely. Many countries increasingly want tech partnerships without becoming digital colonies. India occupies a remarkably useful middle ground. It's democratic enough for Western trust. Large enough for commercial relevance. Neutral enough to engage with multiple blocs. And inexpensive enough to scale faster than almost anyone else.That combination is becoming a strategic asset rather than an accident of history. AI is rapidly becoming more about who owns the ecosystem around it. Enterprise integration, domain expertise, workflow redesign, governance, security and compliance increasingly determine commercial value far more than leaderboard scores. Even industry leaders argue that enterprise adoption will depend on solving these practical challenges, rather than merely accessing better models. That is India's natural habitat.Our policymakers, therefore, need to think more like ecosystem architects rather than technology importers. Instead of endlessly debating sovereign models, they should focus on sovereign capabilities. Create the world's largest AI audit workforce. Build internationally recognised AI safety certification institutes. Lead standards for multilingual testing. Develop open datasets for low-resource languages. Establish regulatory sandboxes where companies from competing geopolitical blocs can safely test models.Become the Switzerland of AI assurance. Switzerland did not become wealthy by inventing every global product but by making everyone comfortable enough to leave valuable things there.India already understands scale better than almost anyone. Its digital public infrastructure has demonstrated that governance at population scale is possible. Increasingly, policymakers and industry observers argue that India's advantage lies not merely in models but in building trusted governance systems around AI. So, let's stop treating every US proposal as a conspiracy against Indian innovation. Some undoubtedly protect US commercial interests. Most nations do exactly that.The more important question is whether India possesses enough strategic imagination to turn someone else's moat into its own marketplace.(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)