Why does Kenya produce an extraordinary number of world-class marathon runners? How did tiny Estonia become a breeding ground for billion-dollar tech companies? And what explains the remarkable number of celebrated writers from Nigeria and classical musicians from Venezuela?

In his upcoming book, Why Kenyans Win Marathons and Estonians Build Unicorns, public policy scholar Anirudh Krishna argues that the answers have little to do with genetics, geography or national stereotypes.

Published by India Viking and scheduled for release in July 2026, the book draws on more than a decade of research to examine how societies repeatedly produce excellence in specific fields. Krishna contends that outstanding achievement is not an accident or an inherited trait, but the result of systems that identify talent early, widen access and create opportunities for large numbers of people to participate.

At the centre of his argument is the idea of an “infrastructure of opportunity” — a set of social and institutional conditions that allow talent to emerge and flourish. According to Krishna, countries that consistently succeed in areas such as sport, technology, literature or music do so because they have built pathways that encourage participation rather than privilege a select few.

Combining rigorous research with a fresh and often counterintuitive perspective, the book moves beyond explaining success stories to ask a larger question: can these systems be replicated elsewhere? Krishna believes they can, offering a framework for creating more equitable societies that expand opportunities while fostering excellence.

Anirudh Krishna is the Edgar T. Thompson Professor of Public Policy at Duke University, USA, and has spent more than 25 years studying how individuals and societies advance. His previous book, The Broken Ladder: The Paradox and the Potential of India’s One Billion, won the Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Award from the Association for Asian Studies.

Why Kenyans Win Marathons and Estonians Build Unicorns will be published in hardback in July 2026. The 264-page book is priced at ₹699.