Low per capita GDP in nominal terms matters little the PPP (Price Purchase Parity) per capita GDP is more than 4 times the nominal one, since this is the real purchasing power of a common person. A person earning Rs. 25,000 in India has a better spending power than someone earning Rs. 1,00,000 in US whose PPP is lesser than its nominal GDP. These rating agencies know it well but work for their Western masters (especially US) who obviously wont like India competing with them. Rating affects the loan taking capability of an enterprise from world markets and a lower rating ensures that they are forced to take loans at substantially higher costs thus making them less competitive against the Western peers and hence all this game play by the rating agencies.