During the 1990-91 balance of payments crisis, India's foreign exchange reserves were sufficient to finance imports for only:

Correct option is A

The correct answer is (A) two weeks

Explanation:
• By mid-1991, India's macroeconomic situation was extremely fragile. The foreign exchange (forex) reserves had depleted to roughly $1 billion.
• This amount was sufficient to cover only about two weeks of essential imports, bringing the country to the brink of defaulting on its international debt obligations.

Information Booster:
• Response to the Crisis: To avoid sovereign default, the Indian government had to airlift its national gold reserves to pledge with the Bank of England and the Union Bank of Switzerland to secure emergency loans.
• This severe crisis acted as a catalyst for the historic 1991 LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation) reforms introduced by then Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Additional Knowledge:
• Options B, C, D: A reserve enough for three months is generally considered a safe minimum by the IMF. Having reserves for only one week is historically inaccurate (though near-collapse), and one month was passed well before the peak of the panic.