April 23, 1982

Without committing President Reagan, Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan hinted broadly today that the Administration would accept a temporary surtax on upper-income taxpayers as part of a budget compromise with Congress. The Secretary also articulated more fully than he has before the view that concerted action by Congress and the Administration to shrink future projected budget deficits is essential to reducing interest rates and to the success of the Reagan economic policy. For the first time, Mr. Regan also said that the Administration has to Paul A. Volcker, the Fed chairman, repeated his call for big reductions in projected Federal budget deficits. Page D2. deal with the public perception - mistaken in his view - that the President's tax and budget-cutting policies have hurt lower-income groups more than others.

Donald T. Regan hinted at possible acceptance of a surtax on upperincome taxpayers as part of a budget compromise. But the Treasury Secretary worded his statement carefully, and did not say that President Reagan agreed with the idea. (Page D1.) Budget negotiators took a new tack: setting only basic targets for spending and taxes for the coming fiscal year, and leaving the politically difficult details to Congress. (A1.) Paul A. Volcker urged big cuts in the projected deficit beginning in fiscal 1983 - by more than $100 billion a year - and said the goal was feasible ''without touching the third year of the tax cut.'' He was not specific but said an energy tax was a good place to start. (D2.)

Ever since Indocin, the first modern prescription drug for arthritis, was introduced in 1965 by Merck & Company, there always seems to have been room for new entrants. Now the pharmaceutical industry is about to put the market to its sternest test. This month, the Food and Drug Administration approved new anti-arthritics from both Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly & Company. In coming months, more entries are expected.

All forms of life - humans, birds, insects - are equal yet unique parts of a balanced and beautiful universe. That is the belief reflected in American Indian totems and effigies on exhibit today through May 29 at ACA American Indian Arts, 25 East 73d Street. Among the objects are totem poles and ceremonial masks from the Northwest Coast, a Zuni fetish of a buffalo carved almost 600 years ago, Navajo rugs depicting supernatural beings and bowls dating from the year 1000 decorated with whimsically stylized humans and animals. A free slide lecture comparing symbols and totems in European and American art will be offered at noon and 5:30 P.M. today by Dr. Robert W. Venables, a curator at the Museum of the American Indian. Admission is free. BRECHT'S 'EDWARD II' ON 86TH ST.

In a region long recognized as conservative, intensely patriotic and pro-military, Jesuits and Junior Leaguers, pediatricians and politicians, scientists, soldiers and students are beginning to emerge in a broad-based and growing movement against the use or buildup of nuclear weapons. ''I believe that opposition to the nuclear arms race is the movement of the 1980's,'' said James Olcese, who teaches biology at Southwestern University and was one of the organizers of Ground Zero Week activities in Memphis, Tenn. ''It really gets down to our whole moral fiber, our social structure, our economic structure, all the things on which our country was based. ''And that's one reason why we have a much wider base of support in the South at the beginning of this movement than we had at any time in the antiwar protests of the 60's,'' he went on. ''That's also the reason President Reagan is so worried about it.''