To be fair, the state has cleaned up its act in recent years and made active efforts to improve its investment environment and court foreign companies, but Mr Jindal – aged 36 when elected in 2007, making him the youngest ­current governor in the US, and the son of Indian immigrants – brought a fresh and strong new look.

Tackling corruption

Mr Jindal has tackled corruption with new ethics rules, enacted true business-friendly tax and regulatory relief, and reached out to recruit and welcome new companies. By fostering and celebrating a string of expansions by companies already in the state, he has significantly increased the credibility of his message. His support for bringing private-sector innovation into what was the troubled public school system of New Orleans also points to expanding opportunities for young people who in the past did not have much of a future, economic or otherwise.

Before his election as governor, Governor Jindal, a Republican, was member of the US House of Representatives, to which he was elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2006 with 88% of the vote. A Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, he has degrees in biology and political science and before entering politics worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co, advising Fortune 500 companies.