November 1, 1984

The United Nations announced today that Israeli and Lebanese military teams would begin talks Monday in southern Lebanon on the subject of Israeli withdrawal from that region. The conference, which is to take place at Naqura, headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, also will deal with the security of Israel's northern border, which Israel has long demanded as a precondition for any withdrawal. United Nations officials declined to discuss the agreement, indicating that to do so might jeopardize any prospect of success. Syria, which also occupies part of southern Lebanon, will not take part in the talks.

''Indira Gandhi, India's Prime Minister, has been assassinated. She was mother not only to me but to the whole nation.

IT had taken months of hunting, but finally, in the summer of1982, Sandra and Robert Wagenfeld found just the house they'd been looking for - a four-story 1821 brick Federal house on Bedford Street in Greenwich Village. Purportedly it had once been the home of Aaron Burr and it had lots of light, space and charm. And a shabby 1922 gas station in the backyard. The house was in move-in condition, and the Wagenfelds knew just what to do the with the deteriorated gas station - demolish it and make way for a garden. Then came reality, New York City style.

The writer of this article is executive editor of The New York Times and was its correspondent in India from 1954 to 1958. He has revisited India often, most recently in January and February this year. In India's great years of hope, when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister and the people called him their beloved jewel, the young woman was almost always with him, usually not at his side, but a few steps behind. Indira, Mr. Nehru's only child, appeared with him at receptions and meetings in New Delhi, smiling, nodding, holding her hands together gently to her forehead in greeting, murmuring a word now and then. In villages far from New Delhi she walked behind him down dusty roads. She sat motionless on platforms while he talked to city crowds of hundreds of thousands, millions sometimes, usually scolding them for their faults, a father quite loving but quick to anger.

The barometer the Government uses to try to predict changes in the course of the economy registered a bit of a rise last month, reversing three consecutive months of decline, the Commerce Department said today. The index of leading indicators, which monitors such things as contracts to build factories, business formations and home-construction permits, rose four-tenths of 1 percent in the month. That was far less than the average monthly gains last year of 1.25 percent but close to the average of the first half of this year. More Components Ready Last month's rise would have been somewhat smaller if not for one of the 12 components of the index, a change in business and consumer borrowing, that usually arrives too late for inclusion in the initial monthly report.