1. A method for feature selection, comprising: a) creating a plurality of initial feature subsets from data; b) inducing said initial feature subsets on training data to obtain induced feature subsets; c) sorting said induced feature subsets obtained in b) in order of performance to obtain sorted feature subsets, wherein induced feature subsets having similar performance are sorted using a heuristic technique; d) merging said sorted feature subsets obtained in c) or f) to obtain merged feature subsets; e) inducing said merged feature subsets obtained in d) on training data to obtain induced feature subsets; f) sorting said induced feature subsets obtained in e) in order of performance, wherein induced feature subsets having similar performance are sorted using a heuristic technique; and g) repeating at least one of d), e), and f) until a desired user specified criterion is satisfied.