The reserves had dropped by $517 million for the week ended April 17 to $252.460 billion from $252.977 billion in the previous week.

Foreign currency assets (FCAs), during the week, expanded to $242.530 billion, up $624 million, compared to $241.906 billion in the previous week, RBI said in its weekly report.

FCAs, expressed in US dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies such as Euro, Sterling and Yen, RBI said.

India's gold reserves and special drawing rights (SDRs) remained unchanged at $9.577 billion and $1 million respectively during the week, RBI said.

The country's reserve position in the International Monetary Fund rose to $983 million during the week from $976 million in the previous week, RBI said.