I am preparing for the UPSC. At the same time I'm at home, doing almost nothing apart from the preparation. I was recommended to do some online course and came across Jindal's MA in IR by Coursera. The problem is that it's not a UGC certified course. However I don't really care about that, and just want something to increase my knowledge & put on my CV. Is the course worth it ? Or should I look into courses by SOAS and Kings, though those are relatively more expensive. Moreover I want a distance learning course not a campus one.

yep. the course will help you tremendously to get into the sector and learn the basics etc, and will add little value to your CV but not as much as you think. It will only provide a slight edge to an already above avg CV i.e it will only add a little value not create any value. Imo, not worth it given the fees.

There are many people in business of selling offline course degrees. They are far better than online courses. I have seen people buying even LLB degrees from them & getting enrolled in bar with due verification. Of course such people have different set of law practice (or outlaw practice) but on paper they too are LLB & advocates & people actually find such degrees more useful than online courses.