There are various Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques used for measurement of residual stresses in material, such as magnetic methods, X-ray diffraction, Ultrasonic velocity measurement etc. The capabilities, applications and limitations of these techniques for evaluation of cold work/plastic deformation were studied and compared. Mild steel plates were subjected to different degree of cold deformation and were analyzed by Magneto-mechanical Acoustic Emission (MAE), Barkhausen Noise (BN) and magnetic properties (hysteresis loop parameters analysis). Further, these specimens were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and ultrasonic velocity measurements. The microhardness measurement and microstructure studies of these cold worked plates were also carried out. The results of all these studies and comparison of different techniques are discussed in this paper.