New Delhi, April 19 -- More startups fail than succeed. On average, just one in ten survives the first year; nearly half don't make it past five. Only one in ten endures beyond a decade. So BluSmart's collapse shouldn't have come as a surprise.

But it did.

That's because BluSmart, India's first all-electric ride-hailing service, seemed like the rare startup that got everything right at the right time. Its customer proposition addressed the key frustrations plaguing Ola and Uber users: clean, company-owned cabs, guaranteed rides with no cancellations, no surge pricing-and zero emissions. It promised both comfort and climate-consciousness, letting users feel good about cutting their carbon footprint.

And for a while, it looked like it wa...