Software industry body Nasscom on Monday extended the term of its president Som Mittal by one-and-a-half years till early 2014 at a time when the Indian IT industry faces challenging times amid the global economic slowdown.

Mittal's term was to end in December and the decision for extension of term was taken by the Nasscom's Executive Council, which met in Chennai today.

"Som Mittal is doing an outstanding job leading Nasscom as the president. The executive council of Nasscom has unanimously agreed to extend his term till early 2014, to which Som has kindly agreed," Nasscom said in a statement.

Born in 1952, Mittal is an IIT Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. He took over in January 2008 and since then his term has been quite eventful.

Right from the Indian IT industry battling global economic slowdown, resulting in slower growth of the sector to withdrawal of tax benefits under the Software Technology Parks of India Act, his tenure has seen a lot of action.

He has also been part of delegations including those discussing outsourcing and the role of Indian IT companies in creating jobs globally.

Mittal has a rich corporate experience having worked for organisations like Larsen & Toubro, Escorts, SRF Ltd, Wipro and Compaq and its successor HP.

He is also a member of National Council and has held leadership positions in CII and Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT).

Nasscom was founded in 1988 and has 1,200 companies as members, ranging from the IT blue chips to small BPOs. Its current Chairman is TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran, while MindTree CEO and MD K K Natarajan is the Vice Chairman.

Its other Executive Council members include Raman Roy (Quatrro BPO Solutions), Rajendra Singh Pawar (NIIT Technologies), C P Gurnani (Mahindra Satyam) and T K Kurien (Wipro) among others.

In early 1991, when the fledging IT sector was still finding its feet, the late Dewang Mehta (1991-2001) along with other thought leaders laid the foundation for what has become one of India's most powerful growth engines -- the Indian IT-BPO sector.

During Mehta's tenure as President, Nasscom spearheaded initiatives that spurred the growth of India's software and services exports.

Most importantly, under his leadership, Nasscom built the India Inc brand.

Following the untimely demise of Mehta, Kiran Karnik took charge of Nasscom in 2001 helping stabilise the organisation and enabled it to continue on its path of growth, expansion and institution building.

Under him, Nasscom spurred the creation of policies and strategies for the advancement of the IT-BPO industry locally as well as internationally.