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Members of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim community, wait to greet the Imam (spirtual leader) Aga Khan outside the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad on May 14, 2008.The Aga Khan is on a one-day visit to the southern Indian city during his seven day official tour to India till May 19.

This speech was delivered at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hyderabad by H.R.H. The Agakhan in December, 1964.

I am grateful and honoured by your kind invitation to me to-night, and I am sincerely thankful to you for having given me this occasion to meet the industrial and business elite of this historical and beautiful city.

On March 12th 1989, Mowlana Hazar Imam performed the Foundation Ceremony for a new girls' hostel in Hyderabad, Sind. When completed, the hostel will accommodate 50 girls from rural villages of Sind enabling them to gain access to higher secondary and third-level education opportunities available in the city.

Mr. Chairman, Members of Ismailia Health Committee,Ladies and Gentlemen, It was most kind of you all to have invited me to this function and I am very much looking forward to see your prize winning babies.

Honourable Minister, Dr Manji, Members of the Central and Zonal Health Boards, Ladies and Gentlemen

I would like to begin today by expressing my very warm and deep gratitude to the President and government of Pakistan and the government of Sind for a most, most generous welcome to Pakistan and today to Hyderabad.

My family and I have been deeply touched by the kindness, courtesy and the welcome of the people of Hyderabad and as you know our family's association and our community's association with Sind is historic in every sense.

Andhra Pradesh government on Friday decided to provide 100 acres of land free of cost to Aga Khan Foundation for setting up a Center of Excellence and a string of educational institutions on the city outskirts.The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy here.

Head of Ismailia sect Prince Aga Khan, who is on a visit to India, today assured to establish a Centre of Excellence here.Aga Khan called on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and acquainted himself with the development activities carried out by the state government, an official spokesman said here.
During the meeting, he assured Reddy that a Centre of Excellence will be establish here with the assistance from Aga Khan Foundation, for which the state government agreed to provide a 50 acre plot.

Extract of News Conference by His Highness the Aga Khan
New Dehli, India, 22nd September 2006

It gives me great pleasure and immense satisfaction to associate myself on the auspicious occasion of laying the foundation stone ceremony of the Aga Khan Academy at Hyderabad. His Highness Sri Aga Khan requires no introduction to this august gathering here. Yet to refresh our memories, Sri Aga Khan has become Imam at the age of 20, one of the youngest hereditary spiritual leaders in the world.

Your Excellency the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
Honorable Ministers
Distinguished Guests
Ladies And Gentlemen

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Let me begin by thanking all of you for honoring us by joining in this celebration – at this truly magnificent site. We are most deeply grateful to all who helped to make this site available to our Academy program. Your generosity will be a continuing inspiration to us all.

The Aga Khan, billionaire spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, has laid the foundation stone for a 50-million-dollar educational centre in southern India.

"The key to future progress in the developing world will be its ability to identify, to develop, and to retain expert and effective home-grown leadership," said the Aga Khan at the ceremony in Hyderabad.

"Too many of those who ought to be leading their communities in the hopeful world of tomorrow are being left behind in the real world of today."

The clash between the Islamic world and the west had its origins in "ignorance" that could be contained through a broad study of world cultures including Islamic civilisations, the Aga Khan, the spiritual head of Ismaili Muslims, said today.

"It is a clash of ignorances...There is a need to study and understand Muslim civilisations, a subject which is often overlooked in some parts of the world today," he told a gathering here after laying the foundation stone for the Aga Khan Academy in neighbouring Ranga Reddy district.

Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual head of the Ismaili community and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Friday laid foundation stone for the Aga Khan Academy on the city outskirts.

The Aga Khan Development Network and Aga Khan Foundation are developing the Academy, an international school of excellence, at a cost of $50 million on 100 acres of land allotted by the state government at Kancha Imarat in Ranga Reddy district.

Clash of ignorance not clash of civilisations: Aga Khan

Prince Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Ismaili community, Friday rejected the notion that tension and violence in today's world was a result of clash of civilisations, especially between the Islamic world and the West.

'I disagree with this assessment. In my view it is a clash of ignorance which is to blame,' he told a gathering at the foundation laying ceremony of the Aga Khan Academy for Excellence in Education on the city outskirts.

Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims around the world, on Friday said he didn't think that current global tensions have been caused by a clash of civilization between the Islamic world and Christians.

"In my view it's a clash of ignorance which is to blame," the Aga Khan said after laying the foundation stone of a US$50 million (€41.6 million) Aga Khan Academy for Excellence in Education in Hyderabad, the capital of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims, on Thursday cleared plans for the setting up of an international school of excellence in Andhra Pradesh.
The Agha Khan Development Network would build the school, which is expected to start functioning from July 2006.

The Aga Khan personally inspected the 50-acre site offered by the state government for the academy, and later met Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to give his nod for setting up the school.

To be set up at an estimated cost of Rs.400 crore, the Aga Khan Academy for Education would offer education till Class 11.

More than 12,000 Ismailis live in Hyderabad.