March 8, 1983

The 13 OPEC oil ministers who gathered here to seek an accord on lowering oil prices postponed their first full meeting until Tuesday - and perhaps later - after Iran insisted it would never agree to a cut in OPEC's official prices. Instead of the expected meeting, the day and evening were spent in a series of negotiations among small groups within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The setback tempered the optimism that had prevailed among the eight ministers who had called for a full meeting. This group, led by Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, has held informal talks over the past 10 days; by last Thursday, they seemed to be making headway.

International The Pope condemned violence and the persecution of Guatemalan Indians. John Paul II, who arrived in Guatemala from El Salvador, repeatedly stressed the themes of human rights and the sanctity of human life, issues of high sensitivity in Guatemala, where the Government last week rejected a plea from the Vatican and executed six men whom a secret military tribunal had found guilty of subversive acts. (Page A1, Column 1.) A meeting of 99 third world nations opened in New Delhi and heard Prime Minister Indira Gandhi stress conciliation on political issues and appeal for immediate debt relief and more aid for poor countries. The Indian leader said that such aid should be followed by a world conference that would seek to overhaul the international monetary and financial system. (A3:1-3.)

Japanese companies seeking new employees typically have one goal in mind: hiring the graduates of leading national universities. Masaya Nakamura, president of Namco Ltd., however, takes an entirely different approach. In colorful magazine advertisements, Namco, a producer of video games, solicits reformed juvenile delinquents and C students. ''For game designers,'' Mr. Nakamura explained, ''the knowledge acquired in school is not so helpful. I want people who think in unusual ways, whose curiosity runs away with them, fun-loving renegades.''

Dillon, Read & Company, the Wall Street investment banking house, said yesterday that its managing directors had agreed to buy a sufficient number of Dillon, Read shares from the Bechtel family of San Francisco to give the banking house's management control of the firm. Neither company would disclose the number of shares changing hands or the terms of the transaction. In June 1981, the Bechtels, through their Sequoia Ventures Inc. investment company, bought the bulk of the shares of the 152-year-old private banking house from C. Douglas Dillon, the former Treasury Secretary, and his family as an investment. The number of shares was not disclosed, but Dillon, Read said it was considerably more than 50 percent of the 30,000 outstanding.

New York State won 8 of the top 10 awards tonight in the annual Westinghouse Talent Search. A 16-year-old student from the Bronx High School of Science, Paul Ning of Washington Heights, won the first prize, for a project in advanced number theory. One of the judges said that Mr. Ning's project, for which he received a $12,000 prize, showed ''a very sophisticated understanding of number theory not commonly found in one so young.'' The Westinghouse prizes are considered among the most prestigious in the nation for aspiring scientists.