Few years ago, I attended a conference where a keynote speaker (from MIT) addressed the issue of how to measure the impact of a research work. And last year, I was in a national workshop where the same topic is addressed from a different stand point. There are many metrics addressing this issue (Impact Factor, h-index, g-index, citations, even RG score, etc.). However, it may seem that the impact of the research may be shifting to include the societal impact of the work (How the work is helping in the solution of the problems and the benefit of the human race). This is taken into consideration at MIT for example. Shouldn't this be the case in all universities? We sometimes tend to shy away from practical work/project because it may not be publishable and therefore it will not be considered in evaluating the research work.