Washington, Jun 13 (IANS): Anand Mahindra, vice chairman & managing director of Mahindra Group, and Alan Mulally, president & CEO, Ford Motor Company, have been honoured with Global Leadership Awards for their outstanding contributions to the US-India growth story.

The Indian and US business leaders were given the awards at the 37th anniversary leadership summit of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) comprising about 350 top US and Indian companies.

The Mahindra Group continues to invest heavily in the American agricultural sector. Since starting Mahindra USA in 1994, the company has grown 20 times over and sold over 10,000 tractors. More than 90 percent of their employees in this enterprise are American, USIBC said.

Ford Motor Company has recently laid the foundation stone for its new $906 million manufacturing facility in Sanand, Gujarat.

The plant, to be operational in 2014, will produce 240,000 Ford automobiles and 270,000 engines a year. This is in addition to Fords' already expansive operations in Chennai.

The USIBC Global Leadership Awards underscore the USIBC's appreciation of the importance for deepening manufacturing collaboration between the world's largest free-market democracies, the trade group said.

USIBC's new Indian American chairman, Ajay Banga, MasterCard Worldwide President & CEO, speaking of "India's miraculous economic rise since its liberalisation in 1991," called on both nations to push for a Bilateral Investment Treaty.

"Thinking big, I propose that we begin thinking beyond a Bilateral Investment Treaty to a Free Trade Arrangement. That would be a real game-changer," said Banga, who Tuesday took over from Harold "Terry" McGraw III, President, & CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies.