Foreign exchange of India has scaled to a new lifetime high of $424.361 billion as on March 30 as per the RBI data released on Friday. In comparison to the earlier week, the increase in foreign exchange was by $1.828 billion. The reserves hit the $400-billion mark for the first time in the week to September 8, 2017.

Foreign currency assets or FCA, which is the prime component of foreign exchange reserve rose by $1.823 billion to $399.118 billion in the reporting week. The FCA component is maintained in some of the world's major currencies that include the US dollar, Japanese yen, pound sterling etc. Expressed in the US dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.

The increase or decrease in the FCA component is triggered by purchase or sale of exchange by the Reserve Bank, revaluation of assets, external aid receipts of the government as well as income that arises due to the deployment of foreign exchange.
Meanwhile, gold reserves remained unchanged at $21.614 billion.

The special drawing rights (SDR) with the International Monetary Fund rose by $2.1 million to $1.544 billion.

The country's reserve position with the IMF also increased by $2.8 million to $2.083 billion, the apex bank said.

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