Leading newspapers in Louisiana, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Times-Picayune, besides being full of stories of the run-up to Governor-elect Piyush 'Bobby' Jindal's swearing-in ceremony, also predicted that with Jindal at the helm, this state could gain an opening into 'the breakneck Indian economy.'

In the lead story in its January 13 Sunday edition, with a banner headline 'In With India', The Times-Picayune said, 'As luck would have it, the first Indian-American to be elected governor in the United States will be inaugurated in Baton Rouge on January 14.

It said that, 'While Bobby Jindal might not be paying much attention to his parents' home country and its traditions on the day he takes the oath of office, image-conscious India surely will have an eye on him, the highest-ranking political figure of Indian heritage in America. And that could be an advantage for Louisiana.'

The newspaper said that led by an innovative breed of entrepreneurs and loosening of government controls on business, the second-most populated nation in the world is lurching into the global economy with new resources of capital, skilled labour and technology.

'Like never before in its history, India is home to a growing number of companies with the means to expand their operations and trade around the world,' it said.

The paper quoted Louisiana's economic development secretary Mike Olivier, who recently met with an Indian trade delegation as saying, "India is the next China," and with Jindal as governor, "Louisiana would have every red carpet open. It's going to open up doors in a short period of time."

It bemoaned that in the past 20 years, Louisiana has often sat on the sidelines while massive foreign investments have poured into other southeastern states of the US, and pointed out that Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Alabama and Mississippi recruited big manufacturing facilities, including trophy auto plants from Japanese, German and Korean companies. It added that in 2007, a massive German steel company opted for Alabama over Louisiana for one of the largest US plant investments of the decade.

According to the newspaper, Olivier had said that he had gotten Jindal, during the time he was a US Congressman, to sign a recruitment letter to a major Indian steel company -- Jindal Steel, which is of no relation to the new governor -- that was considering plant locations in several states.

Jindal Steel is one of the few Indian companies with major manufacturing facilities in the United States, and it has two plants in Texas.

The newspaper quoted Gene Schreiber, managing director of the World Trade Center [Images] of New Orleans, as predicting that Jindal's inauguration would be positive because it puts Louisiana on the map for Indian business. 'It creates awareness, and awareness is the first step.'

The Times-Picayune, in addition to this report, which was spread over three pages, also ran a full page story on the Millennium City in Gurgaon, which has become a hub for global outsourcing business services.

Image: Louisiana Governor-elect Bobby Jindal, his wife Supriya and his son Sean, attended a prayer service on Sunday, a day before he is to take office and become the United States first elected Indian-American governor.

Photograph: Paresh Gandhi