November 19, 1981

A city panel yesterday narrowed from 13 to seven the number of companies competing for the most sought-after cable franchises in the nation - contracts in Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx and Queens. The panel, the Cable Television Working Group, an advisory unit appointed by the Board of Estimate, also proposed Chairman's statement, page B4. that the city carve all boroughs but the Bronx, which attracted only one proposal, into three cable areas each. The approach permits a number of companies to share in anticipated profits.

A $225-a-week electrical maintenance worker in a Manhattan office building was announced yesterday as the sole winner of the $5 million prize in the New York State Nov. 14 Lotto drawing, the largest known lottery payoff in history. Although the winner, Louis Eisenberg, 53 years old, and his wife, Bernice, expect to remain in their two-and-a-half-room apartment in the King's Highway section of Brooklyn, he will retire immediately to ''complete freedom to do what we enjoy.'' They plan to take some trips, perhaps to Hawaii. ''Fifty-three years I'm eating bread, and I want to eat cake,'' said Mr. Eisenberg, a bouncy man with sparkling eyes and a toothpaste-ad smile. He gave his reactions in what he called ''my first press conference'' at the New York State Lottery offices at 2 World Trade Center.

When Pete Love, chairman of National Steel, is not busy streamlining his steel operations, he likes to talk about making National the financial services company for the working class. ''We don't want to confuse people,'' said Mr. Love, his long legs crammed under a conference table. ''But we are a steel company and a financial services company.'' The foundation of the National Steel Corporation's financial services operation is the Citizens Savings and Loan of California, which it bought it 1979. But just last September, it broadened its base with the purchase of two troubled thrift institutions - West Side Federal in New York and Washington Savings and Loan in Florida.

A surprising move by the Federal Reserve adding credit to the banking system led to a steep drop in interest rates yesterday, but by late in the day rates climbed above their lowest levels as some analysts began to doubt the significance of the Fed's action. Despite the late-afternoon increases, short- and long-term interest rates ended the day significantly lower. The three-month Treasury bill, for example, closed at 10.02 percent, down from 10.59 percent a day earlier. In volatile trading, the three-month issue traded briefly at 9.75 percent, the first time it has dropped below 10 percent since early September 1980.

The White House said today that President Reagan had received an initial report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation saying there was no call for administrative action against Richard V. Allen, the national security adviser, for receiving a $1,000 cash payment from a Japanese journalist. The White House said ''an initial oral F.B.I. report'' was ''provided'' to Edwin Meese 3d ''for guidance'' about two weeks ago and that Mr. Meese transmitted the report to Mr. Reagan. But the White House did not say who spoke to Mr. Meese or exactly when the conversation took place. At the same time, Justice Department sources reaffirmed that prosecutors had not uncovered evidence indicating that Mr. Allen committed a crime. They said that, barring any startling developments, they did not expect Attorney General William French Smith to request a special prosecutor, as provided for in the Ethics and Government Act of 1978.