This pace of change is not limited to the development of towns and cities only. It covers the entire spectrum of various technologies. New and even more potent technologies are being developed by every passing day.

All this development has not come about on its own. There have been concerted efforts behind this rapid advancement of mankind in various fields. The main factor, on which the onus of this development falls, is undoubtedly the varied research and development projects which have been and are being carried out across the globe.

Research and development projects are crucial for every government and Major Corporation. All the advancements that have been made are on account of the research and development projects that had been put in place years ago.

Most of the governments spend billions of dollars on research and development projects of all kind. The research can be on soil testing, in the field of medicine or sociological aspects of some programme, such as relocation of people from a site intended for a large dam or any other.

Perhaps the most outstanding and obvious results of research and development can be found in terms of what man has achieved in space. Had it not been for thousands upon thousands of man hours spent on research and development, man's dream of leaving his footprint on the moon may have remained a mere dream.

Same can be said of other sciences. In marine technology, man has conquered the seas. Just as reaching the moon is an exemplary achievement, so is reaching the ocean depths. Today man can go hundreds of leagues below the ocean surface, and yet the research and development in the field is still continuing.

All this has stemmed from man's incessant quest to improve upon his existing pool of technology. A major factor has also been his insecurity from his own kind. Thus the billions spent by nations on defence projects.

In fact most of the developments in relation to our conquest of space and the seas has arisen out of the research and development carried out for defence purposes. The development of missiles led to advancement in rocketry.

Similarly the need to secure old trade routes and the new routes of oil led to the major developments on the oceans. The submarines took the initiative of carrying man to the ocean deep and now it is a vast area for exploration.

In the field of medicine, most ills that plagued the mankind whether they are from air borne mosquitoes to water borne diseases, man has conquered most of them. Still new heights are being scaled and ever new and more effective medicines are being developed.

All the data collected by research and development is very valuable to its owners. One cannot even imagine the kind of loss that mankind as a whole may have to suffer if some of this valuable data were to be lost.

Irrespective of other variables such as the finance involved, a loss of data in any of the fields can set back the human civilisation by several decades and innumerable man hours from dedicated and trained scientists and technicians.

How can one compute the loss where life saving medicines is involved? It takes several years of dedicated research, hit and trial methods for one truly effective medicine to be launched in the open market. Such a loss cannot be computed in numerical terms alone.

Similarly in the context of defence establishments, nuclear establishments and others also, a computation based on monetary terms alone cannot suffice. There is no way that the loss of data pertaining to the development of futuristic radar can be dealt with as a financial loss alone.

The importance of research and development in various fields goes far beyond the sums of money invested in any given project. Hopes of millions of men and women ride upon the success of virtually all such projects. That is a different issue that the man on the street may not be able to relate to the project directly. Nevertheless their impact is far reaching.

This data can and must be prevented from getting lost by all suitable means. Appropriate back up files can and should be made at every stage of data generation. If a data loss does occur on account of a hardware or software malfunction then a good and reliable data recovery company should be approached immediately.