  We present a novel upper bound for the optimal index coding rate. Our bound
uses a graph theoretic quantity called the local chromatic number. We show how
a good local coloring can be used to create a good index code. The local
coloring is used as an alignment guide to assign index coding vectors from a
general position MDS code. We further show that a natural LP relaxation yields
an even stronger index code. Our bounds provably outperform the state of the
art on index coding but at most by a constant factor.
