Chidambaram to speak on terrorism at Davos

For the first time since the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in September 2001, the issue of terrorism will be a centrepiece at the annual World Economic Forum meet in Davos, Switzerland.

The Forum will host a special session on 'The reality of terrorism', to be initiated by Union home minister P Chidambaram. The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma will be part of the Indian delegation.

The session is to deliberate on how terrorist methods and threats have evolved. The January 26-30 annual meeting of the WEF will see participation by 2,500 representatives of over 100 countries. The discussion on Thursday will include the risks and incubators of terrorism since 9/11, countering the narrative, risk response and resilience of terrorism.

Ex-cricket star Imran Khan, now in Pak politics and chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party will attend.

WEF will also host sessions on state capitalism, on social networking and on the impact of Wikileaks.

Chidambaram, will participate in two other sessions: 'Governing one-sixth of the world's citizens' and 'India's inclusive growth' on Saturday. In the first session, he will talk about India and its shared norms on governance and development. Ahluwalia, CII president Hari S Bhartia and social entrepreneur Brij Kothari will also take part in the discussion.

In the second session, Chidambaram is to explain how India is doing with more than half of its population working in agriculture and how India's global growth story will be determined by the way the country manages its rural roots. ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar and the secretary-general of Amnesty International, UK, Salil Shetty, will participate in the discussion.