Jaya Varma Sinha is the first woman Chairman of the Railway Board. A 1988 batch Indian Railway Traffic Service official, she assumed charge of the board at a time when the Indian Railways has received a record budgetary allocation of Rs.2.4 trillion in the Union Budget 2023-24. This is the highest-ever allocation to the national transporter and continues on the trend followed last year with a gross budgetary support of Rs.1.37 trillion in fiscal 2022-23. An alumnus of Allahabad University, Sinha joined the Indian Railway Traffic Service in 1988 and worked in Northern, South-Eastern and Eastern Railway. In her current role, she is responsible for overall transportation of freight and passenger services on Indian Railways.