Confirming this, the chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal said: "Intel had indeed sold the 15 per cent stake in Bharti Telespatiale a few days ago. This is a part of Intel's strategy to re-align and restructure its business. We have bought the stake back from them."

However, he refused to divulge the amount for which the stake was sold to Bharti on the grounds that "Intel is not keen to announce this and we will respect that."

Meanwhile, another strategic foreign partner of Bharti Enterprises, British Telecom (BT), which had announced a few months ago that it would be exiting from all telecom ventures in Asia, including India, is yet to translate its words into actions, at least as far as its investments in Bharti Enterprises are concerned. Says Mr Mittal: "We are yet to receive any formal intimation from BT in this context."

Last August, the Bharti Group sold stakes in two of its holding companies to Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) for $400 million. Till then, BT had been Bharti's preferred foreign partner for investment in its ventures.

Right now, SingTel is partnering with Bharti in its under sea submarine cable project and also in the distribution of bandwidth.

Apart from Bharti Telespatiale, Intel, which has investments in 24 companies in India, had sold its five per cent stake in the portal Rediff.com India. Intel sold its stake in Rediff.com, after the Website listed on Nasdaq last year. The chipmaker sold its holding to private equity firm E M Warburg last December for about $3.5 million. Rediff.com was the first investment for Intel in India, when it had bought the stake in October 1998.

Other investments made by Intel in India include companies such as Sasken Communication Technologies - which develops telecommunications software for clients such as Nortel Networks - and Eastern Software Systems which makes products that help companies manage their businesses online.