The Leadership award was given to Cote as 'the US Company contributing most to the Indo-US commercial relationship', while the honour of being India’s most respected multinational business conglomerate went to the Tata Group of Companies.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group of Industries spoke about India-US bilateral ties, underlining how both the nations were committed to the pursuit of freedom and free enterprise.

He said that with the coming together of both the nations and in the warm chemistry between President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reflected in the landmark India-US civilian nuclear agreement ''which has taken away decades of distance between the two nations.'' Ratan Tata, who had spent ten years in the United States when he studied at Cornel University and the Harvard Business School, said ''We treat the United States as our best friend. We don’t have any fundamental differences and together our two countries can become a positive and powerful force''.

He also expressed the hope that the US Congress would endorse the nuke deal which would help India meet its energy needs.

He was addressing a gathering of corporate leaders and captains of industry at the US-India Business Council here yesterday.

Ratan Tata also mentioned that the success of his company was due to the legacy and value system left behind by his predecessors and that has driven the organisation . He said 65 per cent of the company’s profits goes to charitable work like health care, education, rural development and treatment of water in rural areas.

Honeywell International Inc. Chairman David Cote said that his company has seen its sales in India grow 10 times to 500 million Dollar over the past three years.

He attributed this growing trade relations between the US and India to the prevalence of ''political will'' in the leadership of both the countries.

Without political will, it would have been very difficult to overturn US-India bilateral ties into a strategic partnership, he said.

David Cote, was addressing the US-India Business Council June 22 on its 31st anniversary.

He also spoke highly of India and its potential for economic development. ''Given everything that I see changing and what we've been able to accomplish ... I couldn't be a bigger fan of the country,'' he said.

Mr Cote said his company was currently engaged in evolving a new device to prevent planes from flying into mountains in cloudy weather or into chemical plants.

The New Jersey-based Honeywell is the world's largest maker of cockpit electronics, and also produces products ranging from industrial components to chemicals and spark plugs.

In 2005, Honeywell’s sales soared to $27.7 billion. It has 7,000 employees in India.

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