Ehsaan

India has tightened overseas borrowing rules, making it harder for less creditworthy and smaller local companies to raise funds, which analysts say will curb soaring capital flows and calm the hot real estate sector.

"It looks like the move is basically to control capital flows and cool the real estate sector," said D.K. Joshi, principal economist at credit rating agency Crisil.

The use of overseas borrowings for development of integrated townships would also be stopped. Rising mortgage rates and a doubling of property prices in major cities in the past two years have lifted home prices beyond the reach of middle-class Indians.